Watkins Steps Up By-Election Preparations
The latest leaflets sent out by Elwyn Watkins.
Election-style leaflets from the Liberal Democrats are being pushed through letterboxes across our area, for an election which might never take place. It’s another sign of growing confidence from the Elwyn Watkins camp that their man’s legal challenge to the general election result in Oldham East and Saddleworth could be successful.
The leaflets themselves make no reference to the court case or the possibility of a by-election in the constituency. However, their delivery follows the news revealed by Saddleworth News last month that Mr Watkins was advertising for three campaign workers to join his team.
Mr Watkins has claimed that Labour MP Phil Woolas, who beat him by just 103 votes back in May, broke the law by making certain statements about him in his own election literature. Mr Woolas strongly denied that during a hearing at Uppermill Civic Hall last month. The two High Court judges who presided over the case are due to return to give their verdict on 5 November.
If the judges agree with Mr Woolas then he’ll remain as our MP. But if they side with Mr Watkins, the election result would be declared void and a by-election would have to take place.
It’s not just the Lib Dems getting ready for a new vote though. Mr Woolas has issued a series of statements through his website challenging Mr Watkins on various issues, including his party’s u-turn on university tuition fees and the scrapped plans for a new Saddleworth School. One Labour press release even focused on the results of a just-for-fun poll carried out on this website. However, Mr Woolas could be barred from public office if the verdict goes against him, so Labour might have to find someone else to fight any by-election.
Meanwhile, Conservative candidate Kashif Ali, who finished a close third in the general election, has also been prominent in recent weeks on issues such as parking for blood donors and councillors’ allowances.
For the full background to this story, including every twist from the campaign onwards, check the Oldham East and Saddleworth archive from Saddleworth News here.
Author: Jude Gidney - Editor
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A bit premature – The Judges don’t deliver their verdict until Nov 5th.
Ah, but come November 5th it’ll all kick off…
They seem to get all sorts standing in byelections. In 1995 I believe screaming lord such stood, and a socialist, and Mr blobby. it’ll be busy in OEA…
That should read OES. Apologies to the Ohio Education Association.
Helen – Yes Lord Sutch did indeed stand in the 1995 Littleborough and Saddleworth by-election. Not only that, he came an impressive fourth, with 782 votes, one of his best-ever results. Someone who remembers the campaign told me that he set himself up in a pub in Littleborough, campaigned during the day then played a gig in the pub every night. The locals still talk about it, apparently! As for Mr Blobby, he only got 105 votes. In other words, it was Monster Raving Loonies 1, Noel Edmonds 0.
That was before Noel started his “cosmic odering” – he’d obviously do much better now.
So we could assume that the BNP, UKIP, Greens would stand? Perhaps an English Democrat. Perhaps the Christian Party?
Do you have any leads Richard?
I don’t Helen, but I would say that the BNP and UKIP would certainly stand, most probably with the same candidates who took part in May. It would actually be the first electoral test of the new UKIP leader, who is due to be announced on the same day as the verdict in the case. As for the Christian Party, they’re a bit of a mystery, nobody here had any inkling they would put up a candidate until the day the nominations closed, so I’m not sure about them. The Greens haven’t got a history of standing here, but I suppose they might do given that it’s a by-election. But of course all this is a bit moot unless Woolas loses on 5 November. We’ll only know for sure after that!
And don’t forget Independents
Ooh, I don’t know. Although I expect Woolas to lose this case, I would hope that the Labour Party will take action regardless of the verdict. Woolas might not wish to be an Independent MP for four and a half years.
Being kicked out of a political party and then standing for an office as an Independent can look completely out of touch and pathetic. I guess he could hang around and make trouble for a while longer though.
For clarity, I would like to point out that due to the (sensible) moderation policy on this site, I hadn’t seen Independent Councillor Ken Hulme’s 3.11pm comment when I commented at 3.22pm.
[…] News poll and accompanying comments are here. The piece about Mr Watkins’ latest leaflets is here, while a summary of the Standard Board investigation into the mosque row is […]