What 'wipeout' election poll could mean for Devon

The Conservatives could lose five Devon seats if the results of a shock ‘wipeout’ poll are correct.

A major national poll carried out by Savanta for The Daily Telegraph predicted a Labour landslide and suggested prime minister Rishi Sunak could lose his seat.

Analysis of the poll by the Local Democracy Reporting Service shows that the Conservatives could lose five Devon seats, if the poll predictions are correct.

Plymouth Moor View, won by Conservative candidate Johnny Mercer in 2015, is predicted to flip to Labour, while Tory stalwart Mel Stride, who has controlled his Central Devon constituency since it was created in 2010, is also expected to lose to Labour.

This poll also predicts Labour will pinch South West Devon, a constituency held by Conservative Sir Gary Streeter since its creation in 1997, but who is not standing in next month’s general election.

The Liberal Democrats are expected to take North Devon from the Conservatives, while the new Honiton and Sidmouth seat could be won by the Lib Dems too.

The latter seat, part of which previously made up the Tiverton and Honiton constituency, was won in 2019 by Conservative Neil Parish.

But when he stepped down for admitting watching pornography in the commons in 2022, Lib Dem Richard Foord won the seat in a byelection, and is vying for the Honiton and Sidmouth seat in next month’s poll.

The Conservatives are predicted to hold on (or win if a new constituency) to six seats: Exmouth and Exeter East, Torbay, South Devon, Newton Abbot, Torridge and Tavistock, and Tiverton and Minehead.

However, the poll puts two of those seats – Exmouth and Exeter East, and Torridge and Tavistock – as just about neck-and-neck races between the Conservatives and Labour.

The polling firm caveated that more than 100 seats across the country are predicted to be won by such narrow margins that they remain contestable.