Simon Hart MP: The first 2015 voter?
Simon Hart, the sitting Conservative MP for Carmarthen West & Pembrokeshire South, lays claim to be the very first voter in the 2015 general election. Mr Hart received his postal vote in this morning’s post, around 8am, and voted straight away – for himself – before he’d even had a chance to read his party’s manifesto.
Pembrokeshire Council sent out ballot papers to registered postal voters yesterday, and are among the first local authorities to do so. Most councils are expected to despatch postal votes this week, though many will wait until next week. The choice is up to them.
It’s reckoned that about 20 per cent of votes in this election will be by post, the highest ever figure in a British election. “I’m claiming I’m the first,” Hart tells me. “Or at the least the first MP to vote for himself.” Interestingly, postal voters in the Carmarthenshire half of Hart’s constituency don’t get their ballot papers until early next week. “It’s makes it more difficult campaigning,” Hart says, “as you have to work up to two different postal vote days.”