A CONSERVATIVE junior minister was accused yesterday of "chickening out" of a television election debate after a row over an opinion poll. Roger Evans, defending his Monmouth, Wales, seat, left the studios of HTV in Cardiff minutes before the programme was to be recorded. He later protested that he was not given any advance notice that an NOP poll was to be discussed before a studio audience of "floating" voters.
According to the poll, the Tories, with only 20 per cent support, face their worst general election defeat in Wales this century. Labour were put on 59 per cent, some 7 per cent ahead of its lead throughout the UK, while Plaid Cymru was on 10 per cent and the Liberal Democrats on nine per cent.