"the guardian" reporter ian aitken found the liberal democrat campaign a 'pale shadow' of those run by its former campaign director andy ellis. however the party held off labour to retain a local council seat in western springs ward, part of rugeley, on 14 march. a poll by mori for "the times" published on 19 march showed that the poll tax was identified by 88% of voters as one of the three most important issues. the only other issues scoring significantly were mortgage and interest rates and the national health service, which each had 31%. voting intentions were labour 55%, conservatives 29%, liberal democrats 9%, green party 3%, sdp 2% and others 2%.