VOTERS in Tony Blair's own North-East constituency last night told him that he should not hold a General Election on May 3 because of the foot-and-mouth crisis.

In a poll carried out yesterday evening by The Northern Echo in Mr Blair's Sedgefield heartland, 50.7 per cent said he would be wrong to hold an election on his preferred date of May 3. Just over a third - 35.7 per cent - said he was right to press on while 13.6 per cent were undecided.

The result puts Mr Blair, who was heckled yesterday when he visited farmers in Cumbria, under even greater pressure to postpone the election.

Although the date has yet to be announced, the Government insists that local elections on that date will go ahead and it is expected to confirm within the next ten days that the General Election will be held on the same day.

A report to be published today by Oxford University Professor Roy Anderson will say that the number of cases will peak in early May with the crisis lasting until August. It is a month today since the disease was confirmed on a farm at Heddon-on-the-Wall, Northumberland, which is believed to be the source of the infection.

More than 1,100 people in Sedgefield, Newton Aycliffe, Ferryhill, the Trimdons, Hurworth and Middleton St. George were interviewed by The Northern Echo's team.

Only Hurworth returned a yes to the election. The poll result is remarkable as Mr Blair will defend a 25,143 majority.

The constituency has so far been unaffected by foot-and-mouth, although the outbreak in Old Stillington is less than half-a-mile away.

Mr Blair's election dilemma was summed up by two friends in the Inn on the Green in Sedgefield village. Simon Coates said he was right to go ahead on May 3, adding: "Foot-and-mouth is not his fault. He can't do anything about it."

But John Hubbard said: "The disease is not his fault, but I don't think he's consulted the right people. Very soon, we'll have no animals left."

The poll came on a day when 45 more cases were confirmed across Britain, taking the total to 480, with six new cases in the North-East.

There were four fresh outbreaks in County Durham - at Tow Law, Hamsterley, Wolsingham and Brancepeth, near Durham, coming on top of a case at Satley, near Tow Law, declared on Wednesday night. And in Northumberland, Maff confirmed cases at Haltwhistle and Widdrington, taking the disease to previously clear parts of the county.

Nearly 436,000 animals have now been condemned in Britain. It is therefore certain that today the total will overtake 1967, when 442,000 animals were culled.

The first case in the Irish Republic for 60 years was also confirmed yesterday.

In Cumbria, Mr Blair said: "What we have to do is massively gear up to the scale of the challenge, we have to make sure there's nothing that stands in the way of getting the job done.

"No General Election has been called, there are local elections. I said in the Commons that I would listen to what people had to say about that."

Last night, The Northern Echo also conducted a phone poll of 587 people in Northallerton, where Conservative leader William Hague has the headquarters of his Richmond constituency. Only 16 per cent supported an election on May 3, with 67.3 per cent saying it was wrong.

John Burton, Mr Blair's agent, said of the poll: "We've got to ensure that life goes on as normally as possible. The tourism industry is crying out for us to continue."