Political parties woo football fans in election battle

Crime, jobs, health, immigration, all predictable election issues.

But what about the fate of football clubs?

Unlikely as it seems that may just be an important factor in the battle for Newcastle's three parliamentary seats.

The Newcastle United Supporters Trust is keen to press the politicians for help in their cause.

They would like the chance to own the club.

The Trust was formed last October after the Magpies' relegation from the Premiership.

At the time the club was for sale, and the owner Mike Ashley was about as welcome in St James's as a Sunderland supporter.

Since then of course, the Toon have romped to an early promotion back to the top flight (you see I can do those football-writing cliches too).

But the Trust still feel the club's best bet would be a fans' takeover, and looking at its black and white chequered history over the last 30 years you can't blame them.

They see the General Election as an ideal way to win political support.

And they're definitely onto something.

Both Labour and the Conservatives have mentioned fan power in their manifestos.

Labour says it will be bringing forward proposals to give supporters a stake in their local club.

The Conservatives meanwhile say fans should have the first option to buy any club that goes into liquidation.

The local Liberal Democrat council has also been supportive of the Trust's ambition.

But to help them find out more, I invited four of the Trust's leading lights on a pub crawl with a difference. Instead of downing pints, they'd meet politicians.

So we took off around three Newcastle watering holes to meet the candidates from the main parties.

They spoke to Wendy Taylor for the Lib Dems, Chi Onwurah for Labour and Dominic Llewellyn for the Conservatives.

It wasn't incident-free as you'll see from a previous post but all the candidates at least were very enthusiastic to lend their support.

That's hardly surprising if you study the contests in Newcastle.

All three constituencies - Central, East and North - have majorities of 7,500 and under, while the Supporters' Trust has 30,000 members, more than enough to sway any of the seats.

And they were a formidable bunch. They weren't being fobbed off with soft soap.

They challenged the candidates pretty hard to see if they really would match words with actions.

They're also promising to keep a close eye on whether the politicians fulfil their pledges if any of them get elected.

And of course this might not just be an issue in Newcastle.

There are more than 100 similar supporters' trusts around the country.

All may well want to cast an eye at the party manifestos and find out if their local candidates are prepared to support fan power.

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