BARELY had the ink dried on the winning candidates’ acceptance speeches in one small part of Eastern England than the thoughts of the political classes turned to the next electoral contest.
Most voters, and even many politicians, have had enough of elections after the exertions of the past few weeks. But the Labour Party in Leicester South is bracing itself for a by-election that will test the hopeful theory that “super Thursday” allowed voters unhappy with the Government to get Iraq out of their system.
The immediate threat of a challenge from the UK Independence Party on the back of its European election triumph appeared to fade yesterday as Robert Kilroy-Silk, already returned as an MEP for the East Midlands, ruled out standing.
Nigel Farage, a UKIP MEP, said the party may not field a candidate and instead save its strength for battles ahead. “We are like a boxer coming out of a successful fight. We are battered and bruised. We need time to regroup and rethink,” Mr Farage said.
The Liberal Democrats have cast themselves as the main rivals to Labour. They were the first to select a candidate — Parmjit Singh Gill, 37, a local authority information officer who sits on the council and contested the seat in 2001 — and have leased a cavernous office with 12 rooms. Labour will select a candidate on Thursday and the Tories, who have taken an office within spitting distance of the Lib Dems, are likely to next week.
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The Lib Dems’ battle for the protest vote may be fought not against the UKIP, which poses a greater risk to the Tory and Labour vote, but against Respect, the anti-war party set up by George Galloway. Across the three European Parliament constituencies in Leicester, Respect won 7,375 votes to the Lib Dems’ 10,690. The Tories came third with 14,876, behind the UKIP with 15,252 and Labour with 22,061.
Mr Gill played down the results, saying he had detected no support for Respect on the doorstep among Muslim voters; only anger with Labour about Iraq. His election literature features the war heavily.
Labour will hit back at Mr Gill by highlighting the council’s £2 million cuts in funding for community groups. Sir Peter Soulsby, secretary of the local Labour Party, said that the by-election would be “no pushover” but that the Tory campaign would make it tougher for the Lib Dems.
The Conservatives are in no mood to give the Lib Dems a free run at the seat. They have already put out a direct mailshot and two leaflets localised for each ward.
Chris Heaton-Harris, the East Midlands MEP who will oversee the Tory campaign, knows Leicester South well, having been a parliamentary candidate from 1995 to 1997. He took The Times on a tour of the area, which has Victorian redbrick terraces, shabby council estates, student homes and suburban mansions within a short drive. The population is also diverse, including 19 per cent Muslim, 9 per cent Hindu and 4 per cent Sikh.
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One thing uniting the area was the flag of St George, flying everywhere from bedroom windows to vehicles in the mosque car park. Mr Heaton-Harris, a qualified football referee, bore a T-shirt with the logo “Only Tories can win in Leicester”. The aim is clear: to show there is more than one opposition team on the field.