Campbell Newman in fight for political life as Kate Jones steps up

CAMPBELL Newman is facing his toughest political fight, with former Labor MP Kate Jones to run for the seat she lost to him.

CAMPBELL Newman is facing his toughest political fight, with former Labor MP Kate Jones to run for the inner-Brisbane seat of Ashgrove that she lost to the Queensland Premier at the 2012 state election.

After months of speculation, and the birth of her second child, the former environment minister has told ALP officials she will stand against Mr Newman at the poll, due early next year.

The contest will be the prize fight in the state election, with Mr Newman holding the seat with a 5.7 per cent margin and his popularity plummeting since he led the Liberal National Party to the biggest electoral victory in Australia since Federation.

Labor will open the seat up this week for nominations, with the preselection to be held on ­October 13.

Ms Jones did not return calls last night, but ALP insiders said she would run. “There will be only one person running for preselection and that will be Kate,’’ an insider said. Last week, speculation grew that she was standing for re-election after Labor registered the domain name “kate­jones.com.au’’.

Ms Jones is understood to have been buoyed by Labor polling two months ago, which put her ahead of Mr Newman on a two-party-preferred vote.

Her decision will also boost Labor, which will move to exploit Mr Newman’s falling popularity and raise doubts among voters as to who will be LNP leader after the state election.

Mr Newman has been sandbagging the seat in the face of falling support for himself and his government, with an estimated $80 million in measures specifically for the leafy electorate.

The last Newspoll, in June, showed the LNP trailing Labor by 49 per cent to 51 per cent after preferences, a swing of almost 14 percentage points since the victory. If the swing was uniform, Mr Newman would lose his seat.