Parliament has been dissolved and the leaders of the seven major parties contesting the 2015 general election will clash live on TV tonight as the fight for No 10 officially begins.

Amid the inevitable mud-slinging and media spin, one consensus is this year’s general election is gearing up to be one of the closest ever fought.

For more on the General Election visit www.suttonguardian.co.uk/generalelection2015

Opinion polls suggest the outcome will be another hung parliament, with any number of coalition options being discussed and dismissed.

Carshalton and Wallington has selected Liberal Democrat Tom Brake as MP in every election since 1997, but with pollsters anticipating his party due a drubbing in May, it remains to be seen if the constituency will buck the national trend.

Certainly a Lord Ashcroft opinion poll conducted in November, as well as a barnstorming performance for the Lib Dems in last year’s local elections, suggests Mr Brake is set to retain his seat.

The figures projected by the Tory peer’s team suggest Conservative Matthew Maxwell Scott will trail Mr Brake by 20 per cent in May by collecting 23 per cent of the vote.

Last year’s local election results would appear to suggest Lord Ashcroft is right to back Mr Brake. In the nine electoral wards that make up the Carshalton and Wallington wards, Lib Dem candidates collected 33,606 votes, winning 24 seats, while the Tories picked up 20,121, and only three positions on the council.

Labour top nearly all the national opinion polls, but in Carshalton and Wallington support for them appears to be on the slide.

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Lord Ashcroft’s poll forecasted their candidate, Siobhan Tate, will lose out to UKIP’s Bill Main-Ian, with 12 per cent of the vote compared to 17 per cent.

The Greens have also experienced a surge in popularity and Ross Hemingway will be hoping this has increased further since November when the Tory peer had him picking up 3 per cent of the vote.

The Christian People’s Alliance will be represented by Ashley Dickenson, and is given a 1 per cent share of the pie chart.

With just over a month to go, it remains to be seen if the constituency’s apparent two-horse race can serve up any surprises on May 7.