London minister Greg Hands is claiming the Chelsea and Fulham seat where he is seeking re-election is “neck and neck” and that it could come down to just 300 votes as to who wins.
He highlighted a poll by Survation which he stressed put him just 1.3 per cent above his Labour challenger Ben Coleman.
“That is around about 300 votes.
“What it also shows is that if Labour win here in Chelsea and Fulham they have a majority of more than 200.
“In fact, they will have a bigger majority than Tony Blair and Margaret Thatcher put together.
“That is not a good thing for our democracy and it’s not a good thing for our local area where you would have a Labour government, a Labour Mayor in Sadiq Khan, you would have a Labour council in Fulham, and then a Labour MP as well.”
He appealed to voters in this marginal constituency to back him so it would have a “strong, local voice”.
However, Mr Hands did not highlight several other polls showing he is set to lose.
Mr Coleman hit out at the minister’s comments, saying: “This is self-serving nonsense from a candidate who is putting saving his career before the interests of local people.
“The choice in Chelsea and Fulham is between having a Labour MP working with a Labour government to deliver on the issues that matters like the rebuild of Charing Cross Hospital or a Conservative MP who would be powerless to get results for residents.
“Unlike Mr Hands, if elected as MP for Chelsea and Fulham, I will deliver results, not petitions.”
The Tories currently have three seats in Inner London which are included in the interactive map compiled by The Standard of all 75 constituencies in the capital.
They won Kensington by just 150 votes, with boundary changes meaning there is a new seat of Kensington and Bayswater.
Cities of London and Westminster they held with a majority of 3,953.
Chelsea and Fulham the Tories won with a majority of 11,241. It looks like by far their safest seat in Inner London and if the party lost the seat, it could mean they end up with zero MPs in this area of the capital for the first time ever.
The Tories are also having to defend a string of seats in Outer London, including Uxbridge and South Ruislip, and Romford, as Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party has risen in the polls.
The Liberal Democrats are also targeting three Conservative-held seats in south west London - Wimbledon, Sutton and Cheam, and Carshalton and Wallington.
Labour is in a contest against its former leader Jeremy Corbyn, who is standing as an independent in Islington North.
Some polls suggest the Tories could end up with only a handful of seats left in London, down from around 20, though this would be a remarkably heavy defeat.
