COME May 7 next year the votes will be cast to decide who will be representing Warrington in Parliament.

And the Warrington South seat looks set to become a hotbed of political activity once again as the Conservative’s David Mowat looks to remain in the seat he gained for the party back in 2010.

But a new poll of 1,000 voters in the seat suggests he faces a difficult task ahead of him as it shows a 5.5 per cent swing to Labour’s candidate Nick Bent.

The survey, carried out by Conservative peer Lord Ashcroft, looked at the eight seats ranked 13 to 20 on Labour’s target list to see how a selection of voters would vote in the election.

Overall of the more than 12,000 people asked the poll showed a 6.5 per cent swing to Labour.

Mr Mowat said: “The Ashcroft Poll predicts Labour gaining 90 seats from the Conservatives and having a majority of around 70 over all other parties.

“In Warrington South the swing to Labour is lower than average but, if the election were to be held tomorrow, they would still win.

“It is up to us to work hard, over the next eight months, to close that gap and to keep Ed Miliband out of Downing Street with all the problems this would bring our country.”

When asked how they would vote in a general election 38 per cent said they would vote Labour, with the Conservative vote trailing on 35 per cent.

UKIP voters accounted for 16 per cent while Liberal Democrats polled eight per cent of the vote and four per cent said they would vote for someone else.

When asked about voting in that constiuency Labour went down one per cent to 37, Conservatives went to 29 per cent with the Liberal Democrats gaining seven per cent to reach 15 per cent along with UKIP on 15 per cent and three per cent will vote for another.

Nick Bent, Warrington South Labour Parliamentary candidate said: "It’s very close, I take nothing for granted and my team and I are working our socks off. People tell me they absolutely do not want five more years of Tory government, and I tell them the only way to stop that is to vote Labour. That is the choice."

Last time the town voted in 2010 Warrington South was seen by the Conservatives as a key marginal seat and with the election less than a year away the contest is already well under way.

But when it comes to leaders the Prime Minister David Cameron came out on top with those asked with 31 per cent saying they liked him and a further 27 per cent saying they preferred him to Labour leader Ed Miliband, who picked up 30 per cent support.

The rest were undecided.

And Labour councillors are being pulled in to help them win back the seat as a document seen by the Warrington Guardian has called on them to spend extra time helping to campaign in the seat.