Tactical voting in marginal seats

A marginal seat is a parliamentary constituency held with a particularly small majority that could potentially change hands at an election. These seats require only a small swing to change hands and therefore are typically the focus of intense election campaigning by any party that stands a good chance of winning.

The outcome of the UK general election on 6 May will be determined by what happens in the marginals.

Currently about 90 of the 646 seats in parliament are held by a majority of 2,000 votes or less - so theoretically each of them could change hands if only 1,000 people changed their vote from supporting the current MP to supporting their nearest rival. There are many more seats where the majority is less than 4,000 and just 2,000 people could make all the differnce in deciding whether a current MP stays or goes.

There are currently about 4 million regular church-goers in Britain, on average over 6,000 per parliamentary consituency. Although Christians make up a minority of the total voting population they nonetheless have potential to make a real difference in marginal seats.

If you don't know what your current parliamentary constituency is, who is standing for parliament there and where they stand on the Westminster Declaration and other Christian concerns you can find out the current state of play along with useful links on the Westminster2010 website.

You can also email your local candidates directly from the site to ask where they stand on various issues.

A tactical vote to support a candidate with a good chance of winning who is sympathetic to Christian beliefs and values could make a real difference to how parliament shapes laws over the next five years.