Pressure on Vince Cable to hold his Twickenham seat is increasing according to Dame Tessa Jowell MP, ahead of her speech in the constituency on Monday.
The former Olympics Minister will show her support for Labour candidate Nick Grant, who told SWL earlier this month that Liberal Democrat support is ‘in freefall’.
The talk will take place at the first meeting of Saint Mary’s University Labour Society, a group dissatisfied with the coalition government.
Labour leader Ed Miliband stepped up Labour’s election campaign today by promising they would cut university tuition fees in England to £6,000 per year.
Ms Jowell, who is standing down at May’s election in order to run for London Mayor in 2016, is expected to expand on the policy announcement at the university meeting.
“Like Liberal Democrats all over the country, Vince Cable is now under real pressure,” she said.
“After the Liberal Democrats went into coalition with the Tories it is now absolutely clear that the only way to secure a progressive government is to vote Labour.
“Nick Grant’s hard work and his tireless campaigning on housing, the economy and the NHS have put Labour in with a real shout. I’m backing Nick to win – and he’ll make a great MP for Twickenham.”
Local polling has shown that Twickenham, once a safe seat for Cable, has seen a dramatic 6-9% fall of support since the last election in 2010.
Mr Grant, who claimed that he rarely finds someone who remained happy with the Lib Dems after voting for them in 2010, said that its students who have lost out the most.
“Voters in Twickenham did not vote for a Tory-led collation with no mandate, yet this is what five years of Vince Cable has brought them,” Grant explained.
“This point is particularly pertinent here at Saint Mary’s University. One of the Liberal Democrats’ biggest betrayals is the way that they have let down students here in London and throughout the rest of the UK.
“Not only did they break every promise they made on tuition fees, they have implemented Tory-led policy on this issue so that a University education is more expensive and less accessible to students from poorer backgrounds than it has been for generations.”
Mr Cable’s office suggested that Ms Jowell’s appearance in Twickenham was more to do with garnering support for her mayoral campaign than the general election.
Picture courtesy of Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, with thanks
