A GAY rights group is targeting Janet Anderson's Rossendale and Darwen parliamentary seat as part of a national campaign. Outrage, the pressure group led by former MP Peter Tatchell, is planning to put pressure on the MPs in 30 of the country's most marginal constituencies.

And the campaign called Queer The Vote aims to mobilise the country's gay vote during the next general election. Outrage first hit the headlines when they ran a publicity campaign in London naming celebrities they claimed were homosexuals. Rossendale and Darwen, one of eight key constituencies in the North, will be put in the spotlight by the group.

Janet Anderson, Darwen's first woman MP, won the seat for Labour in 1992 with just 120 votes to spare. Other seats under threat in the North West include Rochdale, Blackpool South, Bury South and Hazel Grove in Stockport.

The Outrage campaign is also being publicised in the gay press. Spokesman Stuart Colley said: "Gay voters could determine the election result in the country's 30 most marginal constituencies where the sitting MPs have a majority of less than 1,000.

"Because the poll result in these 30 seats will decide the outcome of the general election, gay voters in these constituencies will influence which party forms the next government."

"We are warning homophobic MPs in marginal seats that the gay community has the voting strength to get rid of them.

"Research suggests that five to ten per cent of the voting population is lesbian gay or bisexual. This means that in an average constituency of 60,000 electors there are between 3,000 and 6,000 homosexual or bisexual voters."

Janet Anderson did not want to comment on the campaign organised by Outrage.

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