Student marginals

Student voters could swing three key general election marginal seats to the Conservatives, although final-year students as a whole back Labour, according to a poll from market research company High Fliers Research.

At Southampton, Tories lead Labour by 16 per cent (36 per cent to 20). Southampton Test, held by the Conservative James Hill, is a Labour target. At Exeter University, where the city seat would fall to Labour on a 2.5 per cent swing, the Conservatives lead by per cent to 20. And at Loughborough, where the constituency is reckoned to be the threshold seat for a Labour majority in the House of Commons, they are ahead by per cent to 17.

The poll, of 12,039 final-year students in 24 universities, found that 29 per cent expected to vote Labour, 18 per cent Conservative and 10 per cent Liberal Democrat. Twenty-six per cent said, when polling took place in March, that they were un-decided and a further 11 per cent would not vote.