Liberal Democrat research has identified 14 seats where there are enough students to take them from second place to beat Labour, and 13 where they could go from second to beat the Tories. It is based on all students voting in their university rather than home constituencies.
The article identifies Leeds North West as being one of 14 Labour seats that the Lib Dems were hoping to win thanks to the student vote. And as predicted, Liberal Democrat Greg Mulholland was duly elected as the MP for Leeds North West in the 2005 General Election.
Now that the Lib Dems nationally are no longer promising to scrap tuition fees, perhaps their “Campaign Group for Student Constituencies” will be able to find new ways to persuade students to vote for them. This is a group set up by Mr Mulholland earlier this year with the message that the Liberal Democrat party “best represents university constituencies and the interests of students, academics and long-term residents alike” (2).
Perhaps as a prelude to this campaign, Mr Mulholland had a meeting with Leeds University student rep Rob Damiao where, according to Mr Damiao, a relationship was established which it’s hoped will result in more students voting at the next election. Since the Lib Dems claim to have far more student supporters at Leeds University than the other parties, they’ll no doubt be hoping that the majority of these extra voters will be voting Lib Dem (3).
References
Students can swing 27 seats say NUS – April 2005
Lib Dems form campaign group for student constituencies – March 2009
Student rep’s work update report – January 2009