The East Anglian Daily Time has secured the first regional newspaper interview with Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith.

The Ipswich-based paper’s political editor Graham Dines asked him about the forthcoming Ipswich by-election, the policy review of his party and how the Conservatives aim to get back in step with the voters.

Graham said: “We spoke at Westminster 15 minutes after a noisy Prime Minister’s Questions in which he challenged Tony Blair over Railtrack, the embattled transport secretary Stephen Byers, and the Health Service.”

The Tories need to overturn a majority of 8,081, with a swing of more than 10%, to win on November 22.

They have picked a local candidate, Paul West who was born in Ipswich, who both lives and works in the constituency.

Iain Duncan Smith tackled the local issues in his interview and looked at why votes were scarce last time around.

He told Graham: “We were bringing policy in in the last six months. That was very difficult – people need time to understand policies, and recognise how that will benefit them before they say ‘we will have some of that’.

“A lot of them did not vote, or did not vote Conservative, because they felt that politicians rarely spoke about things that mattered to them. They felt the Tories were obsessed by some subjects and not about others.”

The East Anglian Daily Times will be publishing interviews with leading figures from all the main political parties in the run-up to the vote.

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