Buckingham
Beryl McNulty Tory Bill Benyon won the marginal seat of Buckingham from Labour in 1970 with a majority of 2,521. Whether he will hold the seat on February 28 is one of the big election imponderables. His Labour opponent is Mr Robert Maxwell, whose well reported conflicts in the publishing world have made him a national figure. He represented the division from 1964 to 1970, declaring after his defeat that he
had only loaned the seat and would be back. There is also the challenge of Mr Sam Crooks (Liberal). In 1970, 5,475 people voted Liberal in a poll where the Tories won with 28,088 votes an Labour came second with 25,567. Mr Crooks has said he thinks he can win the seat for the Liberals, but this is hard to credit in a CO stituency where supporters of the two parties are so equally spread over the grounu. The big question mark hangs over Milton Keynes, the huge new city to which 9,000 or 10,000 voters have come as an overspill population from London since 1970 and whic,;11 is still included in the Buckingham corit'' tuency. Most of the men work locally in dustry — there is no shortage of jobs. T"'" way the newcomers vote could make all the difference. It is very very close indeed.
Mrs McNulty is the chief political reporter of the Buckingham Advertiser.
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