Seats visited by party leaders on day 13: Key election data

By a happy statistical coincidence, both Sir Keir Starmer and Sir Ed Davey spent Tuesday morning visiting the seats that are ranked at number eight on their respective parties’ target lists.

The Labour leader was in the constituency of Bolton North East in Greater Manchester, where the Conservatives are defending a notional majority of 1,278.

The Liberal Democrat leader was not too far away in Cheadle, also in Greater Manchester, where the Tories are defending a notional majority of 2,336.

Both seats would change hands on relatively small swings, with Labour needing a swing of 1.3 percentage points in Bolton North East, and the Lib Dems needing a swing of 2.1 points in Cheadle.

(PA Graphics)

It is the second time this week Sir Keir has visited a constituency that is one of his party’s top 10 targets, following an event on Monday in Bury North (number seven on the list).

Bolton North East was won by Mark Logan for the Conservatives at the 2019 general election, having previously been a Labour seat since 1997.

Mr Logan is not standing at this election and announced on May 30 that he is planning to vote for Labour on polling day.

A total of five seats in north-west England are in Labour’s top 10; along with Bury North and Bolton North East, they are Burnley (ranked at number one), Leigh & Atherton (number two) and Bury South (number six).

Sir Ed Davey’s visit to Cheadle means the Lib Dem leader has now made appearances in five of his party’s top 10 targets.

Labour Party leader Sir Keir Starmer and shadow work and pensions secretary, Liz Kendall meet pensioners to talk about the impact of the energy crisis and cost of living during a visit to the Bridge Cafe in Bolton (Stefan Rousseau/PA)

Along with Cheadle (number eight on the list), Sir Ed has visited Wimbledon (number three), Cambridgeshire South (number five), Cheltenham (number six) and Eastbourne (number nine).

Cheadle has been represented by the Tories since 2015, having previously been held by the Lib Dems since 2001.

Sir Ed has now visited 13 constituencies across the UK since the first full day of the campaign, most of which (11) are being defended at the election by the Conservatives.

Sir Keir has visited 16, 12 of which are Tory defences.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is not due to carry out any campaign visits on Tuesday.

He has visited 24 constituencies since the start of the campaign, 21 of which are being defended by the Conservatives.