2007 Ealing Southall by-election
The Ealing Southall by-election, 2007 is a by-election for the British House of Commons constituency of Ealing Southall, in West London. It is scheduled to be held on 19 July 2007.
The election was triggered when Piara Khabra, the Labour Party Member of Parliament for Ealing Southall, died on 19 June 2007. Khabra had held the constituency since 1992, while the Labour party has held the seat since its creation in 1983, and the predecessor seat of Southall since it was created in 1945.
The government moved the writ for the by-election in Parliament on 28 June 2007, the day after the funeral of Piara Khabra.
Candidates
The Conservative Party selected Surinderpal Singh Lit (commonly known as Tony Lit) as its candidate. He is the former Managing Director of Sunrise Radio and son of Avtar Lit who contested the constituency in 2001 and came third.[1] The deputy chair of the local Conservatives, Brij Mohan Gupta, resigned from the party in protest at Lit's selection and endorsed Quentin Davies' criticisms of David Cameron's policies, joining instead the Liberal Democrats.[2]
The Liberal Democrats selected Nigel Bakhai as their candidate; he contested the constituency in 2005 and came second.[3] The party fared worse than expected nationally at the UK local elections, 2007, and several newspapers claimed the Ealing Southall by-election would be a major test of Menzies Campbell's leadership, with a poor result potentially leading to a leadership challenge. The Independent also claimed the party regarded the Ealing Southall election as winnable, and were focussing resources on the seat, in preference to the Sedgefield by-election, to be held the same day.[4][5]
Labour selected local councillor Virendra Sharma[6] from a shortlist of two (with Jo Sidhu the other shortlisted candidate).[7] As Khabra had previously announced his intention to stand down at the next UK general election, Labour had already decided on its selection rules and had chosen to have an all-women shortlist for the constituency at the next UK general election.[8] but the Labour National Executive Committee decided the by-election selection would not be from an all-women shortlist.[7]
Several other candidates will stand. The Respect party selected local teacher Salvinder Dhillon as its candidate in the Southall by-election.[9] He previously contested the seat as an independent in 2001.[10] The UK Independence Party has announced Indian-born Dr K T Rajan as its candidate.[11] He had previously stood for the party in various Welsh Assembly seats. The Green Party selected their 2005 candidate, Sarah Edwards. John Cartwright will be running for the Official Monster Raving Loony Party, having stood repeatedly in Croydon Central and also at the Bromley and Chislehurst by-election, 2006.[10] The English Democrats have shortlisted Roger Cooper and Sati Shagger.
Significance of this by-election
This by-election and the Sedgefield by-election, also being held on 19 July, will be significant because they are the first elections to take place during the tenure of the new Prime Minister, Gordon Brown. According to the Elections Office of Ealing Council, the electorate is 85,423 which is an increase of 1,685 (2%) on the 2005 General Election.
Declared candidates to date
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Liberal Democrats | Nigel Bakhai | ||||
| Monster Raving Loony | John Cartwright | N/A | |||
| Respect | Salvinder Dhillon | N/A | |||
| Green | Sarah Edwards | ||||
| Conservative | Tony Lit | ||||
| UKIP | Kunnathur Rajan | ||||
| Labour | Virendra Sharma | ||||
| Majority | |||||
| Turnout | |||||
General Election 2005 result
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Labour | Piara Khabra | 22,937 | 48.8 | +1.3 | |
| Liberal Democrats | Nigel Bakhai | 11,497 | 24.4 | +14.4 | |
| Conservative | Mark Nicholson | 10,147 | 21.6 | +3.3 | |
| Green | Sarah Edwards | 2,175 | 4.6 | +0.1 | |
| Workers Revolutionary | Malkiat Bilku | 289 | 0.6 | N/A | |
| Majority | 11,440 | 24.3 | |||
| Turnout | 47,045 | 56.2 | −0.6 | ||
| Labour hold | Swing | −6.6 | |||
References
- ^ "Tony Lit resigns from Sunrise to join Conservative party", Asians in Media magazine
- ^ Senior Tory defects in protest at Cameron 'spin', politics.co.uk
- ^ Lib Dems name by-election choice
- ^ George Jones, "Campbell challenges 'whisperers' to face him"m Daily Telegraph
- ^ Colin Brown and Nigel Morris, "Campbell challenges 'whisperers' to face him", The Independent
- ^ Southall Labour Party website
- ^ a b "Woman frontrunner ditched for Southall by-election", Associated Press of Pakistan
- ^ Natasha Brown, "MP shortlist put on hold", icEaling
- ^ Local teacher to fight parliamentary seat
- ^ a b UKPollingReport: Ealing Southall
- ^ UKIP website - Candidates selected for Sedgefield and Ealing