What a Choice

[DevilorDeepBlueSea]

Historically safe Conservative seat. The Labour candidate didn't even bother showing up to the local hustings and hasn't been seen locally since the election was announced (too busy in London apparently). Reform are surging and according to the polls it's now a tight finish, some predicting Conservative, some predicting Reform.

Tactical voting sites don't seem to account for Reform at all.

Is anyone else faced with this awful choice - vote Conservative or potentially end up with a Reform MP? I can't be the only one on MN surely.

Who do you want to win?

Are you saying there is no lib dem or green candidate in your area? I would only consider voting conservative in your situation if the conservative candidate is on the moderate side of the party. Ie. if it is someone like Suella Braverman there isn't much difference between her and reform anyway so I'd vote for one of the smaller parties. I really think that the conservatives will do better and reform worse than the polls suggest but I may be proved wrong.

Yes there are Lib Dem and Green candidates but they'll likely lose their deposits. There is huge support for Reform here: if they don't win the seat they'll come close. I would've said a few weeks ago not a chance would I vote Conservative, but the prospect of a Reform MP is horrifying.

I'd vote Tory to try and keep Reform out if I lived somewhere like Clacton or Skegness etc

Yep, close to Skeg. I still haven't decided and the clock is ticking! I was hoping that maybe there were a few others in the same position, but maybe I'm the only non-Tory non- Reform voter in the constituency

Horrific. I'd vote Lib Dem.

Interesting @cupcaske123. Can I ask why that is? Last polls I saw showed the Conservatives winning by 0.1% (so a few hundred votes decide it) and Lib Dems nowhere to be seen. The tactical voting sites don't take into account that the alternative to the Tories could actually be worse...

Because I couldn't vote for either of those parties. I couldn't vote for more of the Tories given the state of the country and I couldn't vote for Reform. If you put a gun to my head, I'd vote Reform to weaken the Tory vote.

I would probably vote Tory. I'm firmly left of centre, but worry about the effect on RW parties if Reform do well. Do you know if your Tory candidate is a moderate one?

Current MP (and Conservative candidate) reminds me a bit of Tim Nice But Dim in Harry Enfield - probably showing my age there

Not particularly right wing, but not particularly moderate either.

@DevilorDeepBlueSea - I've only just seen this post, but wanted to share my feeling of despair and anger that we have been put in this position in our constituency. I am absolutely mortified that we are now known as one of the areas that has elected a Reform MP and your dilemma was exactly what my friends and I have been discussing for the last couple of weeks. We all had to go against what we wanted to do and vote Tory as a tactical vote to try to keep Richard Tice out, sadly it didn't work. I really do feel that my choice was taken from me. It's even worse now that my tactical vote didn't make a difference 😔

@youllneverknow - strangely I'm not even angry with the actual Reform voters. I'm angry with the tactical voting sites that all advised our area to vote Labour even though it was never going to fall, and instead opened the door to Reform. I'm angry with the people who didn't vote tactically and instead gave the Greens and Lib Dems their votes.

At least we tried. I started this thread as I really didn't want to vote Tory, but then weighing it up I realised it wasn't going to make a difference to the national result but might, just might, keep Reform out. Many moons ago when I lived in a different constituency in a local election I had to vote Conservative to keep the BNP out. This isn't much different, except that that time it worked.

I work remotely for a London company and will be keeping very quiet about my vote however!

@DevilorDeepBlueSea - I agree. I'm also angry with certain celebrities/influencers who were encouraging people not to vote tactically and to vote for who they believed in. I wanted to scream "we don't have that luxury" at them!
I am embarrassed that our area is now known for being racist and xenophobic when actually 14% of the electorate of the UK voted Reform. Our constituency I think was just over 20% Reform so not as a big a difference as people think.