Alexander challenges poll claims
A poll predicting Badenoch and Strathspey MP Danny Alexander will lose his seat at the next general election does not bear scrutiny, the politician has said.
The study released by Lord Oakeshott suggested Nick Clegg would not win his own re-election battle in Sheffield and Mr Alexander would lose his Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch & Strathspey constituency to the SNP in 2015.
The poll shows Alexander, chief secretary to the treasury, would fail to secure more than 16 per cent of the vote in the general election.
However, in a statement to the press, issued through a spokesman, the MP strongly refuted the poll, saying the sample size was too small and the methodology used was criticised by other polling companies.
The spokesman said: “Only 309 people contributed to the voting intention question – that is less than half of one per cent of the 72,500 in the constituency.
“Such a small sample gives a margin of error on its own of 5.5 per cent. Further, the voting intention question asked used neither Danny’s name nor the constituency name."
He said recent research has shown that Liberal Democrat MPs would get an 11 point lift in such polls when people are specifically asked to think about their own constituency and their MP.
The spokesman added: “This deeply flawed poll is in stark contrast to the projection published last week in the Inverness Courier.
"That projection, which took into account the recent election results, showed Danny holding the seat ahead of Labour with the SNP in third place.
"The Courier knows the constituency intimately and is better placed to assess the political mood than a remote polling company using a flawed methodology.”
Unsurprisingly, SNP Highland Council depute leader Richard Laird took a different perspective, saying the poll reflected the “huge disappointment” that many local people had expressed in recent months.
He added: “Mr Alexander was elected to stand up for the Highlands, not to put the Tories in power, and this shows that he will pay for the price for that at the next general election.”
