Miliband back on the campaign trail in Kent

After the main parties suspended their campaigns following the death of Baroness Thatcher the campaign resumed this morning. The Labour leader Ed Miliband headed to Greenhithe and Gravesend this morning as part of Labour’s local election campaign. Mr Miliband was out meeting voters in advance of Kent County Council elections.

The Leader of the Opposition visited Asda in Greenhithe before he headed to Gravesend Borough Market. He will finish with a trip to Maidstone around lunchtime and will hope to have persuaded voters to add to the Labour two councillors in Kent which is currently dominated by a large Conservative majority. The entire council is up for election and the current make up of the Council is:

Conservative 74

Liberal Democrat 7

Labour 2

Resident 1

The Conservatives who in 2009 gained 17 seats, all from the Labour party, must be expecting to see loses with their dire poll ratings. If Labour fail to take council seat in places like Thanet & Thurrock where up until the last general election they held the parliamentary constituencies then the road back to Downing Street will be a lot longer for Mr Miliband than the polls seem to be suggesting.   

Another factor to throw into Kent is UKIP as they will also be hoping to gain from the Conservatives downturn in fortune. The Leader of the United Kingdom Independence party, Nigel Farage, who while in Kent last weekend said "I would be very surprised if, come May 2, we did not win at least a couple of seats and possibly more. All over the country we have seen astonishing rises in our vote. There are some seats in Kent we are working very hard on. I am not going to make rash or bold predictions, but I will be extremely disappointed if we do not have some representation on May 2."

The Conservatives are looking to the Eastleigh by-election as a way of warning voters about voting for UKIP saying "the Eastleigh by-election showed the likely outcome was that a more pro-European party would win". Although they do say about the threat of UKIP: "It would be foolish to write off the threat of UKIP - clearly they are, but we have to get across to voters that as a Conservative-run council, we have strong leadership and look after public money in the most efficient way."

The Liberal Democrats will be hoping to hold on to the seven seats they have in Kent but the party is more likely to be concentrating on places like Cornwall and Devon where they have a good chance of taking control from the Tories.