CRUCIAL seats being fought for in the General Election will be won or lost by the "grey vote", according to a poll of pensioners.

The Age Concern survey reports that candidates in marginal seats, such as Selby, must secure the vote of older electors if they are to take control. And the issues which will win that support are pensions and health care, the report states.

Age Concern director Gordon Lishman said: "Older people are telling the candidates in the marginal constituencies that they must listen to their concerns if they are to win their votes.

"They have provided very clear leads on the issues that matter most to them - the basic state pension and the NHS. The potential rewards are high for those candidates and parties who show they are genuine in wishing to meet the aspirations of older people."

In the Selby seat, which includes Fulford and the University of York and stretches across to Selby town, a majority of just over 3,000 votes returned Labour in 1997. But the "grey vote" is worth about 6,000 votes.

Labour candidate John Grogan said: "In Selby I worked out that pensioners make up over 20 per cent of the total electorate, and they are far more likely to turn out to vote than any other age group.

"Their vote will be critical."

Tory Michael Mitchell is confident many will be impressed by his party's policies.

He said: "The Conservative Party has listened carefully to the needs and interests of pensioners and the policies we are putting forward I think will be attractive to them.

"We are rewarding those who have saved and put money by, which we think is the right thing to do, and we are saying that we will match pension increases that Labour has planned.

"Pensioners won't forget the 75p raise that Gordon Brown enforced on them. They deserve more respect and they have earned that, and the Conservative Party's policies respect that."

But Mr Grogan thinks Labour's record of the past four years could have won pensioners' support. "I don't think I won the backing of Selby constituency's pensioners last time," he said. "But I think our record could do it this time. Pensions have increased, we've introduced the winter fuel allowance and a big local factor is half price travel for older people on buses."

Liberal Democrat Jeremy Wilcock said: "Pensioners as people are important to us, rather than their votes. We want to see increases in pensions of £5 when people first retire, £10 when they reach 75 and £15 for those over 80."

And Green candidate Helen Kenwright said: "My parents are approaching 80 years old and they've supported the Greens for a long time. We want to introduce a citizens income scheme to guarantee everybody an income.

"Older people are often sidelined which we think is appalling."

Updated: 16:43 Thursday, May 24, 2001