Poll predicts Lib Dems could lose all their seats

An exclusive ITV opinion poll shows the Liberal Democrats are facing electoral wipeout in the South West - with the party on course to lose all of their seats in the region.

The ITV News ComRes poll is based on research in all the constituencies held by the party in our region. If it is translated at the polls it would transform the political make-up of our region - and put the Tories on course to win an overall majority.

In yellow on this map you'll see the current Lib Dems seats.

With the swing to the Tories predicted in this poll it would look like this after May 7.

In further bad news for Nick Clegg, three in ten voters in these seats - 29 per cent - say that Mr Clegg puts them off voting for the Liberal Democrats. Strikingly, one in three voters in these Liberal Democrat seats - 32 per cent - say that the party has become irrelevant.

The Liberal Democrat vote in its 14 South West seats has evaporated – where in 2010 it achieved nearly half of the vote in these constituencies, it now looks set to win just one in four votes.

The Conservatives have taken a commanding lead in these Liberal Democrat heartlands, with their vote share increasing from 39.5 per cent in 2010 to 44 per cent now. Labour, UKIP and the Greens have all also made gains as a result of the Liberal Democrat decline.

However Nick Clegg, launching the Lib Dem manifesto in London, called the poll's findings "total and utter nonsense", avowing that the party had a great story to tell voters and could hold on to its heartland.

Plymouth University politics professor Colin Rallings argues that although the party has a point, it still might be time to worry.

But what do voters themselves say? Interviews with shoppers in Torbay, Devon revealed a complex mix of views including both support and disappointment.