THE long Conservative drought in Merseyside will end in spectacular fashion next year, according to a poll of key battleground seats.

David Cameron's party is poised to snatch no fewer than eight Westminster seats in the wider region at the general election, the study for the Politics Home website found.

In Merseyside, the Tories are favourites to sweep away Stephen Hesford in Wirral West and Labour's new candidates in Wirral South and the rejigged seat of Sefton Central.

Elsewhere, Labour MPs are in deep trouble in City of Chester (Christine Russell), Ellesmere Port and Neston (Andrew Miller), West Lancashire (Rosie Cooper), Weaver Vale (Mike Hall) and Warrington South (where Helen Southworth is standing down).

Across the North West region, the Conservatives are on course to reap the benefits of a 9% swing from Labour.

There has been no Tory MP in Merseyside since Tony Blair's 1997 landslide, which banished the party from Wirral West and Crosby (now Sefton Central) – Wirral South having fallen in a by-election just weeks earlier.

In total, Politics Home carried out more than 33,000 online interviews across 238 marginal constituencies that will decide the poll, expected in May.

It predicted a Conservative majority of 70, with Gordon Brown's party reduced to just 199 seats – a crushing loss of 150 MPs from Labour's current strength.

However, the annual “super-poll” had predicted a Tory majority twice as large one year ago – and offered other crumbs of comfort to Labour's demoralised MPs and activists in the region.

Even in the North West – where a total of 17 gains were predicted – the Cameron advance was described as "faltering" compared with 12 months ago.

The survey found that unemployment, which barely figured as an issue in 2008, had soared up the list of issues most important to voters, alongside defence and the Health Service.

Even in the wake of the expenses scandal, it appeared “sleaze” is still comparatively unimportant.