KEY MARGINAL:Conservatives hope this bellwether constituency will 'return to the fold', writes MARY FITZGERALDin Birmingham
SYLVIA JENKINS wasn’t coy when it came to revealing how she had voted as she left the polling station at the University of Birmingham’s Newman House chaplaincy. “Conservative, of course,” she said with a smile. “I’ve got my fingers crossed that Edgbaston will return to the fold.”
As British constituencies go, there are few more redolent of middle-class, middle England than this leafy suburb in the southern reaches of Birmingham.
True-blue Tory for almost a century – Neville Chamberlain held the seat for several years – Edgbaston was the scene of one of the most symbolic moments of New Labour’s 1997 landslide win, when Gisela Stuart’s victory here was one of the first declared during a long night of drama.
A bellwether constituency, Edgbaston is judged to be a key barometer of the national mood. With little more than 2,000 votes separating the incumbent Stuart and her Conservative challenger in the last general election, all eyes are on Edgbaston this time.
Labour’s wafer-thin majority aside, the Nick Clegg effect has added a fresh uncertainty to the contest, prompting voters like Zainab Lati to break with family tradition and vote Lib Dem.
“I come from a Labour-supporting background but I think Nick Clegg made a lot of sense during this campaign,” Lati, a student, said.
“I hope he gets the chance to bring the change that Britain needs. Lib Dem all the way!”
Gillian Hughes, a retired teacher who describes herself as a “staunch Conservative”, said she hoped Stuart loses her seat.
“I vote Conservative because it’s a family thing but there’s nothing I dislike more than Labour.”
Students Robert Sassoon and Gideon Bratt arrived at the polling station together but voted differently – Sassoon for Labour and Bratt for the Tories.
“I’ve always voted Labour and I still think they, more than anyone else, have the policies required to take this country forward,” said Sassoon (20), a business management student.
“But anything seems possible in this election, it’s really very difficult to call.”
Bratt, who is studying international relations, said he liked the Conservative Party’s proposals for revamping the education system, and he praised shadow education secretary Michael Gove’s ideas as “radical and exactly what this country needs”.
He also spoke admiringly of Tory leader David Cameron: “I’m not anti-Brown but I think David Cameron would be a better prime minister.”
Conservative Party members Margaret Turner and Lyndon Evans discussed how the election was likely to play out on a local and national scale.
“Labour are going to be hammered,” Evans said with certainty. “It’s the Lib Dem vote we’ve got to be worried about, especially among younger voters. That will split the vote.”
Turner, wearing a blue rosette on her lapel, mulled over Stuart’s prospects. “There’s a very high chance she will lose her seat but I have to say she has been a popular and efficient MP in this area,” Turner said. “If she loses, it won’t be so much to do with her own record but because people have turned against Labour and they want change.”