Ealing Southall by-election, 2007
Encyclopedia
By-election
A by-election is an election held to fill a political office that has become vacant between regularly scheduled elections....
for the British House of Commons
British House of Commons
The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which also comprises the Sovereign and the House of Lords . Both Commons and Lords meet in the Palace of Westminster. The Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 650 members , who are known as Members...
constituency of Ealing Southall, in west London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. It was held on 19 July 2007.
The election was triggered when Piara Khabra
Piara Khabra
Piara Singh Khabra was a British politician who served as the Labour Member of Parliament for Ealing Southall from 1992 until his death. He was the fifth Asian, and the first Sikh, to become a British MP...
, the Labour Party
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
Member of Parliament
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
for Ealing Southall, died on 19 June 2007. Khabra had held the constituency since the 1992 election
United Kingdom general election, 1992
The United Kingdom general election of 1992 was held on 9 April 1992, and was the fourth consecutive victory for the Conservative Party. This election result was one of the biggest surprises in 20th Century politics, as polling leading up to the day of the election showed Labour under leader Neil...
, while the Labour party has held the seat since its creation in the 1983 election
United Kingdom general election, 1983
The 1983 United Kingdom general election was held on 9 June 1983. It gave the Conservative Party under Margaret Thatcher the most decisive election victory since that of Labour in 1945...
, and the predecessor seat of Southall
Southall (UK Parliament constituency)
Southall was a parliamentary constituency centred on the Southall district of west London. It returned one Member of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom....
since it was created before the 1945 election
United Kingdom general election, 1945
The United Kingdom general election of 1945 was a general election held on 5 July 1945, with polls in some constituencies delayed until 12 July and in Nelson and Colne until 19 July, due to local wakes weeks. The results were counted and declared on 26 July, due in part to the time it took to...
.
The government moved the writ for the by-election in Parliament on 28 June 2007, the day after the funeral of Piara Khabra. This by-election and the Sedgefield by-election
Sedgefield by-election, 2007
The Sedgefield by-election, 2007 was a by-election held on 19 July 2007 for the British House of Commons constituency of Sedgefield in County Durham...
, also being held on 19 July, were significant because they were the first elections to take place during the tenure of the new Prime Minister
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the Head of Her Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom. The Prime Minister and Cabinet are collectively accountable for their policies and actions to the Sovereign, to Parliament, to their political party and...
, Gordon Brown
Gordon Brown
James Gordon Brown is a British Labour Party politician who was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party from 2007 until 2010. He previously served as Chancellor of the Exchequer in the Labour Government from 1997 to 2007...
.
According to the Elections Office of Ealing Council
London Borough of Ealing
The London Borough of Ealing is a borough in west London.-Location:The London Borough of Ealing borders the London Borough of Hillingdon to the west, the London Borough of Harrow and the London Borough of Brent to the north, the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham to the east and the London...
, the electorate was 85,423 which represents an increase of 1,685 (2%) on the 2005 General Election
United Kingdom general election, 2005
The United Kingdom general election of 2005 was held on Thursday, 5 May 2005 to elect 646 members to the British House of Commons. The Labour Party under Tony Blair won its third consecutive victory, but with a majority of 66, reduced from 160....
.
Candidates
Labour selected local councillor Virendra SharmaVirendra Sharma
Virendra Kumar Sharma is a British Labour Party politician and the Member of Parliament for Ealing Southall since 2007.-Parliamentary career:...
from a shortlist of two - with Jo Sidhu the other shortlisted candidate. 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, but following Khabra's death, the Labour National Executive Committee decided the by-election selection would not be from an all-women shortlist. Following the selection, five Labour councillors defected to the Conservative Party.
The Liberal Democrats selected Nigel Bakhai as their candidate; he contested the constituency in 2005 and came second. 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
Menzies Campbell
Sir Walter Menzies "Ming" Campbell, CBE, QC, MP is a British Liberal Democrat politician and advocate, and a retired sprinter. He is the Member of Parliament for North East Fife, and was the Leader of the Liberal Democrats from 2 March 2006 until 15 October 2007.Campbell held the British record...
's leadership, with a poor result potentially leading to a leadership challenge. The Independent
The Independent
The Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...
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
Sedgefield by-election, 2007
The Sedgefield by-election, 2007 was a by-election held on 19 July 2007 for the British House of Commons constituency of Sedgefield in County Durham...
, to be held the same day.
The Conservative Party
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
selected Surinderpal Singh Lit - commonly known as Tony Lit - as its candidate. He is the former Managing Director of Sunrise Radio
Sunrise Radio
Sunrise Radio is the United Kingdom's first Independent Local Radio station to cater specifically for the Asian community. Dr Avtar Lit is the chairman and chief executive of this media group which also operates kismat radio,buzz asia,punjabi radio as well as sunrise tv-Transmission:It initially...
and son of Avtar Lit
Avtar Lit
Avtar Lit is the owner and chairman of Sunrise Radio Group, and was listed by AIM magazine as one of the "20 most powerful Asians in British media" in 2005, and said to have amassed a big personal fortune...
who contested the constituency as an Independent candidate in the 2001 election
United Kingdom general election, 2001
The United Kingdom general election, 2001 was held on Thursday 7 June 2001 to elect 659 members to the British House of Commons. It was dubbed "the quiet landslide" by the media, as the Labour Party was re-elected with another landslide result and only suffered a net loss of 6 seats...
and came third. The deputy chair of the local Conservatives, Brij Mohan Gupta, resigned from the party in protest at Lit's selection and endorsed Quentin Davies
Quentin Davies
John Quentin Davies, Baron Davies of Stamford is a British Labour Party politician who was the Member of Parliament for Grantham and Stamford from 1987 to 2010. Originally elected as a Conservative, he defected to Labour on 26 June 2007. Davies announced in 2010 that he would not stand for...
' criticisms of David Cameron
David Cameron
David William Donald Cameron is the current Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service and Leader of the Conservative Party. Cameron represents Witney as its Member of Parliament ....
's policies, joining instead the Liberal Democrats
Liberal Democrats
The Liberal Democrats are a social liberal political party in the United Kingdom which supports constitutional and electoral reform, progressive taxation, wealth taxation, human rights laws, cultural liberalism, banking reform and civil liberties .The party was formed in 1988 by a merger of the...
. Newspapers reported that Tony Lit attended a Labour Party fundraising event and Sunrise donated £4,800 to Labour in June 2007, before he switched allegiance to the Conservatives later that month. On the ballot paper, Lit was described as "David Cameron's Conservative" while the Sedgefield candidate was simply "Conservative".
Several other candidates stood. The Respect party selected local teacher Salvinder Dhillon as its candidate; he previously contested the seat as an independent in 2001.
The UK Independence Party announced Indian-born Dr K. T. Rajan as its candidate. He had previously stood for the party in various Welsh Assembly seats. The Green Party selected their 2005 candidate, Sarah Edwards.
John Cartwright ran for the Official Monster Raving Loony Party
Official Monster Raving Loony Party
The Official Monster Raving Loony Party is a registered political party established in the United Kingdom in 1983 by musician and politician David Sutch , better known as Screaming Lord Sutch.-History:...
, having stood repeatedly in Croydon Central
Croydon Central (UK Parliament constituency)
The comparison is with the notional 2005 result for the new boundaries which made Croydon Central a Labour defence.-Elections in the 2000s:-Elections in the 1990s:- Notes and references :...
and also at the Bromley and Chislehurst by-election, 2006
Bromley and Chislehurst by-election, 2006
A by-election was held in the UK parliament constituency of Bromley and Chislehurst in London, following the death of Conservative Member of Parliament Eric Forth on 17 May 2006. The writ for the electing of a new member was issued on 6 June for a polling day of 29 June 2006, the same day as the...
. The English Democrats chose Sati Chagger as their candidate. Meanwhile, Yaqub Masih, General Secretary of UK Asian Christian Fellowship and a presenter on Sunrise Radio is stood for the Christian Party
Scottish Christian Party
The Christian Party, also called the Scottish Christian Party and Welsh Christian Party, is a minor political organisation in Great Britain. Its leader is the Reverend George Hargreaves.-Operation Christian Vote:...
. Local GP Gulbash Singh, Director of the Sikh Human Rights Group Jasdev Singh Rai and Kuldeep Singh Grewal all stood as independents.
The BBC report that independent candidates Kuldeep Singh Grewal urged his supporters to vote Labour, while Golbash Singh called on his supporters to vote Conservative, on 19 July. Due to electoral law the two men are not permitted to remove themselves from the ballot paper and still attracted votes.
Controversy
On 18 July 2007, the Metropolitan PoliceMetropolitan police
Metropolitan Police is a generic title for the municipal police force for a major metropolitan area, and it may be part of the official title of the force...
launched an investigation after receiving a complaint in writing from Labour's election agent Ken Clarke. It related to a Daily Telegraph website blog entry, posted on 17 July, which claimed to show the results of the postal voting ahead of the ballot. The article on the Daily Telegraph website quoted "a source inside the Tory campaign". In response, a spokesman for the Conservative Party said: "Our agent in Ealing Southall hasn't published any such information or spoken to the Daily Telegraph."
The Telegraph Media Group said the blog entry was removed as soon as they were told it could breach electoral law. The Metropolitan Police said the complaint would be "thoroughly investigated" and "appropriate action taken".
The Director of Public Prosecutions
Director of Public Prosecutions
The Director of Public Prosecutions is the officer charged with the prosecution of criminal offences in several criminal jurisdictions around the world...
has also been asked by Labour to probe claims that the Liberal Democrats misrepresented Labour candidate Virendra Sharma in their election leaflets by listing his age as 72, when at the time of the election he was 60.