Relief for Brown as Labour wins

From The Times

July 20, 2007

Relief for Brown as Labour wins first tests under his leadership

Gordon Brown enjoyed his first taste of victory at the polls as Prime Minister early today as Labour withstood a late Liberal Democrat surge to hold both Ealing Southall and Sedgefield.

The results, with the Tories trailing in third place in both constituencies, was a hammer blow for David Cameron, who tried to use the campaigns to showcase his brand of modern, broad-based Conservatism. The gamble back-fired as it emerged that the Conservative leader’s modernising candidate in Ealing Southall — Tony Lit — attended a Labour fundraising dinner days before being selected.

Mr Cameron’s claims to be tapping into a groundswell of support among Britain Asians in the multiracial constituency also proved unfounded.

Labour’s victories, albeit with reduced majorities, vindicated Mr Brown’s decision to call snap polls after the death last month of the Ealing Southall MP Piara Khabra and Mr Blair’s resignation as MP for Sedgefield. But the fall in the party’s support in Ealing Southall, after a bruising campaign marked by party in-fighting, defections and allegations of dirty tricks, suggests that Mr Brown will look for more sustained evidence that he is ahead nationally before calling a general election.

Far more serious are the repercussions for Mr Cameron, whose party was unable to make inroads into Labour support in a seat where the Tories won control of the local council in spring last year.

The Conservative leader made five visits to Ealing Southall during the by-election and his candidate was described on the ballot paper as “Tony Lit — David Cameron’s Conservatives”.

Mr Lit, who had not even been a party member, was hand-picked to fight the seat in the belief that a handsome young Sikh with local business connections — he ran Sunrise Radio, owned by his father in Southall — would give the party credibility with Asian voters. His photograph beamed down upon voters from countless posters across the constituency, but the Conservatives’ “air war” was not followed up by an effective “ground war” to target and deliver voters.

Although Mr Cameron has already sidelined Francis Maude, his former party chairman whose last act was to pick the party’s candidate for Ealing Southall, a backlash among frustrated Tory traditionalists is inevitable. Recriminations began on the Conservativehome.com website even before this morning’s declaration.

Although the Lib Dems’ strong showing may come as a relief to Sir Menzies Campbell, after speculation of a threat to his leadership of the Liberal Democrats if they fared badly, the vote is further evidence of the party’s formidable by-election team.

Labour, which has a huge local party in Ealing Southall with 1,800 members, was hit by splits and factionalism from the outset after a row over the original plan to choose the next MP from an all-woman shortlist. This process was scrapped on Mr Khabra’s death. When Virendra Sharma, 60, a long-serving if low-profile Labour councillor, was chosen as the candidate, his rival for the nomination, Gurcharan Singh, also an Ealing councillor, defected to the Tories, taking four fellow councillors with him.

Mr Sharma said after the result was announced at 2.25am: “This is a great win for our new Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, and it’s a humiliating rebuke from Britain’s most diverse constituency to David Cameron’s Conservatives.”