Battersea flipped from Labour to Conservative at the last election and looks to remain blue as the Ashcroft final poll gave the key marginal a comfortable 12-point lead.
The Lib Dems have sluggishly built support, gradually improving their vote share up to hover around 15%.
Will Martindale, Labour candidate, was pessimistic about his outcome, he said: “I had a huge amount of support today, but at the moment it is going to be unlikely that Labour will win in Battersea unfortunately.”
Luke Taylor, Liberal Democrat candidate, said: “I had a good chat with Will Martindale, the Labour candidate. He said that he wasn’t at all worried because the Labour team has got fantastic ground game.
“He also commented on the particular electorate that the Labour party has. The core Labour voter won’t be typically reached by these polls.
“The poll didn’t worry him as much as Ashcroft wanted it to.”
The exit polls have predicted a massive crash in Liberal Democrat support, the first three seats to be announced have all been Labour in their north east stronghold.
Battersea’s UKIP candidate Chris Howe reacted to the exit polls at the count.
He said: “If the exit poll figures are true then that is disappointing, however we will wait to see the turnout.
“Certainly the reaction I have been getting locally is that many people are turning to UKIP.
“I would say the positive result in Sunderland is a fair reflection of UKIP’s growth nationally.”
Mr Howe said he was ‘very happy’ with how his campaign has gone and that people have begun to realise that UKIP is a ‘middle of the road, moderate’ party attracting support across the political spectrum.
“What I have in and around Battersea is that there has been much less hostility towards us following the lies and character assassination that has been put our way through the media,” he said.
“Red and blue mixes to make purple and that is what we are finding.”
