Miliband kicks off battle for Oldham East
By politics.co.uk staff
Ed Miliband today became the first of the party leaders to hit the campaign trail in Oldham East and Saddleworth.
The Liberal Democrats moved a writ for the by-election – expected on January 13th – this morning, formally kicking off the campaign.
The Labour leader is visiting the constituency today, while David Cameron is also expected to campaign there in the coming days.
But all the parties have been anticipating the poll since Labour ex-MP Phil Woolas was stripped of his seat by a special election court last month.
Labour have nonetheless criticised the date of the by-election, arguing the decision to allow the Lib Dems to move the writ was a break with precedent as the incumbent party is usually given the privilege.
Shadow Commons leader Hilary Benn accused the government of deliberately holding the poll before students come back from their Christmas holidays in order to favour the Liberal Democrats, going further to say the coalition was “running scared” of student anger.
But Sir George Young hit back, arguing it was “astonishing” for Labour to want to delay the election and thus deny the constituents of Oldham East and Saddleworth an MP for longer than necessary.
The campaign will be the first real test of how the coalition parties will conduct elections to Westminster against each other.
Liberal Democrat challenger Elwyn Watkins lost out in May by just 103 votes, but given the polling fortunes of the Lib Dems nationally, Labour are being portrayed as the frontrunners.
The Conservatives mounted a surprisingly strong challenge for the seat in May, however, leading some to believe the Christmas by-election will be a three-way fight.
The nature of Woolas’ previous campaign, actively stoking racial tensions, combined with his successor Debbie Abrahams’ limited time to ‘bed in’ to the constituency makes the race a tantalisingly unpredictable contest.
It is unusual for sitting prime ministers to campaign actively in by-elections, with Mr Cameron’s expected visit highlighting the importance of the election as a barometer of the coalition government’s performance.
