Election Roadtrip – The Route

By Mark Ferguson / @markfergusonuk

This afternoon we’re heading to Sheffield to begin the first leg of the inaugural LabourList election day roadtrip. From the opening of polls tomorrow morning, through a day of campaigning and well beyond the close of polls, I’ll be liveblogging from the doorstep in a number of marginal areas across the country. The route has been finalised, the clipboards are packed and the car is filled up with crisps and lucozade. And petrol obviously.

We’re one very important person down on this trip. We had hoped to be joined by LabourList favourite (and Lib Dem slayer) Emily Thornberry, who unfortunately had to pull out at the last minute. But we’ll be putting the boot into the Lib Dems on her behalf – especially in the first stop of our trip.

The areas we’ll be visiting (in order) are:

Sheffield – we’ll begin the day in Sheffield, with a focus on Nick Clegg’s constituency of Sheffield Hallam. This is a Lib Dem council that could well fall to Labour, and in doing so would be a huge vote of no confidence for Clegg in his own back yard.

Leicester – Thursday is a huge day for Labour in Leicester. As well as council elections, there’s the race to be the new directly elected mayor, and parliamentary by-election in Leicester South. We’ll be in Leicester to help out Leicteser South candidate Jon Ashworth and mayoral candidate Sir Peter Soulsby.

Milton Keynes – A NOC council and two Tory parliamentary seats might make Milton Keynes sound like a daunting task, but there’s real potential here for Labour in this Buckinghamshire new town. And not least because the old seat of Milton Keynes South West was Labour from 1997-2010.

Luton – We’ll finish our day of doorknocking in Luton. The council is currently marginal, but a good campaign in the local area means there should be Labour gains in Luton on Thursday, especially as Labour had strong results in the parliamentary elections here last year.

You can follow our journey on our liveblog from 7am tomorrow morning, and on twitter (using #electionroadtrip).