Brown gains double win in first poll test

Guardian

20 July 2007

· Tory charm offensive fails in Ealing Southall
· Reduced Labour majority in Blair's old constituency

Conservative hopes of ending the Brown bounce suffered a setback early this morning, as the party came third in two high-profile byelections despite a push spearheaded by David Cameron.
Voters gave Gordon Brown a cautious endorsement in his first electoral test as prime minister, when Labour held on to both Ealing Southall and Tony Blair's former seat of Sedgefield, albeit with much-reduced majorities.

The results raise questions about the Tories' ability to recover from the boost the government has enjoyed since the handover at No 10 and, perhaps more damagingly, about Mr Cameron's changes to the party. Many saw the decision to parachute a charismatic political novice into Southall as evidence of the Tories' tendency to put spin ahead of substance.

The Tory leader was personally closely associated with the campaign: he visited the west London seat five times and his party even appeared on the ballot paper as "Cameron's Conservatives".
Virendra Sharma - a councillor in the area for 25 years - held the seat left vacant by Piara Khabra's death last month, getting 15,188 votes. That gave Labour a majority of just over 5,000, fewer than half its previous level. Nigel Bakhai actually increased the Lib Dem lead over the Tories, taking 10,118 votes to their 8,230, in a humiliation for Conservative newcomer Tony Lit.

"This is a great result for our new prime minister Gordon Brown," Mr Sharma said. "David Cameron staked his reputation on this byelection. The people of Ealing have given him their verdict - they do not trust the Tories to represent us."

Labour were quick to label the result a disaster for the Conservatives' controversial candidate who joined the party days before he was selected - infuriating local activists.

The Conservatives hoped his high profile locally, as the managing director of his father's radio station Sunrise, would help the party to leapfrog the Lib Dems and beat Labour. But he was always a high risk candidate, and his campaign floundered when it emerged at the weekend he had helped arrange a donation of almost £5,000 from Sunrise to Labour only weeks ago. His rivals took pleasure in distributing a picture of him beaming alongside Mr Blair.

There was never any doubt that Phil Wilson would win Sedgefield, the seat vacated by his old boss, Mr Blair. But a low turnout saw Labour's majority slashed from 18,500 to 7,000. The Lib Dems' Greg Stone leapfrogged the Conservative candidate Graham Robb into second place.

Last night's results were a welcome boost for Sir Menzies Campbell, whose leadership of the Lib Dems has been under increasing pressure in recent months because of poor opinion poll ratings and concerns about a squeeze from a resurgent Conservative party. Had the Tories pushed the Lib Dems into third place, it would have been the first time the party had been squeezed from first or second place since its foundation in 1988.

The Conservatives were initially confident they would beat the Lib Dems in Ealing and thought they might even defeat Labour. But a Tory aide said last night: "We had a good candidate and we fought a good campaign, but it's a difficult seat for us."

Both last night's seats were considered ultra-safe Labour constituencies. But governments tend to suffer in byelections: the Tories did not hold a single seat in contests between 1989 and 1997.