Stafford Bill Cash (Contesting different seat) 20,292 24,606 5,480 0 248 Stafford 26,464 19,229 9,097 0 257 Conservative The county town of Staffordshire has consistently returned Conservative members of Parliament. It even remained Tory in a by-election in 1984, something that would be almost unheard of in the last decade. It is just possible that this is about to change, and in a general election too. It has to be said that one of the main reasons for this concerns boundary changes. The Stafford seat that Bill Cash won by 10,900 votes from Labour in 1992 included a substantial swathe of rural mid-Staffordshire, but this element has been substantially reduced as an extra Conservative seat (Stone) has been created in the area. Bill Cash has wisely opted to stand for Stone rather than Stafford, for the truncated and more urban new seat of that name would need a swing to Labour of less than 7 per cent. Admittedly, this sounds like a large movement of opinion; but it might be remembered that such a swing would be achieved if Labour were to finish 6 per cent or more ahead when the votes are counted nationally; and how far have they been ahead in every opinion poll over the last few years?

	4,511	12.38	9.03	137
	4,112	11.28	11.17	101
	6,219	17.07	11.25	152
	5,656	15.52	14.70	106
	0	0.00	10.45	0
	1,206	3.31	2.81	118
	4,344	11.92	8.01	149
	5,083	13.95	15.25	91
	1,844	5.06	7.13	71
	3,079	8.45	10.17	83