John Connolly John Connolly

What do Peterborough voters think about Thursday’s by-election?

There’s only one day to go until the Peterborough by-election, which decides who will replace the former Labour MP Fiona Onasanya, and yet it’s still all to play for in this marginal seat.

Under normal circumstances, with the last Labour MP found guilty of perverting the course of justice and thrown out by her constituents, you would expect the Conservatives (who only lost by around 600 votes in the 2017 general election) to be favourites to win. But the recent rise of the Brexit party in the local and European elections means that conventional wisdom no longer applies.

The Brexit party are currently frontrunners in the race and some bookies have stopped taking bets on their candidate, Mike Greene, becoming the party’s first Westminster MP. But it remains to be seen whether the campaign methods, rallies and social media strategy which served the party so well during the EU election will be as effective here, when the party has little local campaign infrastructure, and the other political parties have been campaigning for months.

Talking to some of the residents in Peterborough this week, it’s easy to see why this race is so hard to predict.

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