Tynemouth is the top Tory target in the North East of England and Wendy Morton is the Conservative candidate aiming to regain the seat, which the party lost to Labour in 1997.
The Lib Dems are in third place with a little over 15% of the vote - but I suspect Wendy will now be eating into that (as well as continuing to pick up switchers from Labour) as it has emerged today that her Lib Dem opponent chose this week of all weeks to go on holiday.
As William Green from the Newcastle Journal blogs:
Tynemouth candidate John Appleby has been on a family holiday in the Lake District all week - even though it was the worst kept secret that Gordon Brown would call a general election this week. A Lib Dem spokeswoman insisted Dr Appleby was fighting a strong campaign and was not a "paper candidate" in Tynemouth, where the Conservatives are fighting hard to snatch the seat from Labour.
Speaking to me from holiday, the Lib Dem candidate said: "I am not the Prime Minister. I don't hold any great office of state. I have spent a great deal of time campaigning. We have all the nominations completed. Everything is ready to go. The general election could have been called any time in the last three months and it could have been postponed and although that was the most likely date, it was not certain. Everything we needed to do was organised. I am taking a few days out. I shall go back to campaigning when I am back."
With the Lib Dem yet to leave the stalls, clearly it's a two-horse race in Tynemouth, to coin a phrase...
Jonathan Isaby
