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Labour have called the Crewe and Nantwich by-election for May 22nd, just three weeks from today.
Labour’s chief whip moved the writ in Parliament yesterday. This is eight days ahead of the funeral of Gwyneth Dunwoody, the Labour MP whose death has prompted the by-election – a sign that Labour are desperate for a quick election to minimise the time opponents have to gain momentum in the seat. Elizabeth Shenton will fight the by-election for the Liberal Democrats. Lib Dem Chief Executive Lord Chris Rennard said: “Elizabeth Shenton is a very strong candidate for us and we will fight this campaign very vigorously. We only have 3 weeks for this campaign - so help is needed now!”
5 comments:
Liberal Democrat President, Simon Hughes said:
“There has long been a convention that by-elections are called by the party which previously held the seat. However, there are strong arguments against any party rushing into a by-election.
“Most people would expect that the election of an MP’s successor should not start at least until after the funeral of the previous MP.
“A longer gap between a seat becoming vacant and the election campaign starting would allow more time for candidates to decide to stand and be in place. Voters need time to arrange to be at home or organise postal votes for the day of the election.
“The Government must work to build a cross-party agreement about the minimum time between an MP's death and a by-election being called.”
Here we go again....
From the Guardian:
The Dunwoody family said: "We fully support the decision to begin the process of electing a new MP for Crewe and Nantwich. Our mother proudly represented this constituency for 34 years and would not want to see local people go without an MP.
"She worked tirelessly for local people and recognised there was always more to do. She would want that job of work to continue as quickly as possible."
According to Michael Crick on Newsnight, the Lib Dems are already bussing in workers and dumped their previous candidate. So, you can't really critisise.
On a more consensual note, congratulations to Frank for getting elected in Cadoxton. I met him when he stood in Rhos in 1999. Nice chap.
> the Lib Dems are already bussing in workers
> and dumped their previous candidate
That is at least tendentious and borders on the biased. As I understand it, there had not been a selection for the Crewe seat, and Mia Jones, who fought Chester for us at the last GE, was merely the favourite. There was a selection process according to party rules, and Elizabeth Shenton got the vote.
As to "bussing in", this is not the Labour Party, you know. Volunteers came forward as soon as the rumours of a snap election started to circulate. The Cheshire people didn't want to get caught out as we did in Hodge Hill.
And all our workers (apart from the one or two full-timers from Cowley Street) have to pay their own way.
I forgot to say: Mia Jones is the daughter-in-law of Sir Trevor, "Jones the Vote". No doubt we would be accused of nepotism if she had won the selection.
We should have gone for Baglan before the body was cold in 2006!!!
G. Lewis
Bridgend Lib Dems
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