Election: Are you in a marginal?

The election will be decided by a comparatively small number of people in a small number of constituencies.

With many seats guaranteed to stay with the party which traditionally holds them, it is the marginals where the mood of the electorate and the result of the election can be determined.

UKTECH takes a look at some of those key areas and other election statistics.

Current position

At present, the seats are:

Labour - 408

Tories - 162

Lib Dems - 55

Scots Nat - 5

Plaid - 4

Others - 25

Giving Labour a majority of 167.

A seven per cent swing to Tories would mean a hung Parliament, while a 10.3 per cent swing to Tories would see Mr Howard walking up Downing Street. They would need to gain 159 seats to form a majority.

If Labour loses about 80 seats its majority will be gone.

At risk

An early barometer is often the most marginal seats.

• Labour seats most at risk:
  Dorset South (majority 153; under threat from Tories)
  Dumfries and Galloway (141; Tories)
  Braintree (358; Tories)
  Monmouth (384; Tories)
  Lancaster and Wyre (481; Tories)
  Kettering (665; Tories)
  Northampton South (885; Tories)
  Cardiff Central (659; Lib Dems)
  Ynys Mons (800; Plaid)
  Welwyn Hatfield (1,196; Tories)
• Most marginal seat - Cheadle - held by Lib Dems with a majority of 33.
• Ministers at risk:
  Melanie Johnson (Welwyn Hatfield 1,196)
  Jacqui Smith (Redditch 2,484)
  Ruth Kelly (Bolton West 5,518)
  Stephen Twigg (Enfield Southgate 5,546)
• Leading Tories at risk:
  Oliver Letwin (Dorset West 1,414)
  David Davis (Haltemprice & Howden 1,903)
  Tim Collins (Westmorland and Lonsdale 3,147)
  Michael Howard (Folkestone and Hythe 5,907)
• Big names bowing out:
  John Hume, Brian Mawhinney, Michael Portillo, Tam Dalyell, Teddy Taylor, Jack Cunningham; Virginia Bottomley, Gillian Shepherd, Paul Boateng, Estelle Morris, Chris Smith, Ann Taylor, Helen Liddell, Tony Banks, Alice Mahon, Brian Sedgemore, Donald Anderson, Archie Norman, Sidney Chapman, Paul Tyler.