117 seats to witness close race: Poll

A NEW poll has found that 117 seats will witness a close race on July 4 and 100 of them are held by the Conservatives, according to media reports.

The latest poll by Ipsos gives Labour an unassailable lead by winning 453 seats, while the Conservatives will win 115.

The Liberal Democrats were predicted to take 38 seats and the Scottish National Party 15.

Among the 117 close call seats, the Tories are ahead in 56, while the Labour leads in 48 seats. The winning margin in these seats is expected to be less than five percentage points.

The poll predicts that Penny Mordaunt in Portsmouth North, Gillian Keegan (Chichester) and Grant Shapps (Welwyn Hatfield) risk losing their seats.

It expects James Cleverly and Kemi Badenoch to hold their seats, while Chancellor Jeremy Hunt is set for a tight race against the Liberal Democrat challenger in Godalming and Ash, Surrey.

The poll also estimated that Nigel Farage, leader of Reform UK, would win his seat in Clacton and the party would return a total of three MPs.

It found that Jeremy Corbyn would lose his seat of Islington North to the new Labour challenger.

Ipsos surveyed nearly 20,000 participants from June 7 to 12 to predict the results in each constituency up for election on July 4.