Two more local Labour politicians will defect to the Conservatives today in Ealing Southall, adding to Labour’s woes as a by-election campaign in the West London seat enters its final week.
David Cameron, making his third visit to the constituency, will meet two former Labour councillors from a neighbouring borough who are switching to join his party.
One is Parmod Kad, general secretary of the Indian Overseas Welfare Association UK, who was appointed MBE two years ago for services to community relations in Southall.
He lives in Southall although he was a Labour councillor in neighbouring Hounslow, as was Sarbjit Singh Gill, who will defect with him to the Conservatives. Their decision will be hailed by Mr Cameron as another sign of broadening support for his party.
However, plans for a prominent member of Southall’s Hindu community to endorse the Tory campaign had to be scrapped. The Times was told that the man, who has links to a Hindu temple, no longer wished to make a declaration of support for the Conservatives, although the party claimed he would back them privately.
Advertisement
There was nervousness in the Conservatives’ campaign as they prepared to unveil the latest defectors, after the party was embarrassed earlier this week when it announced incorrectly that a Labour councillor had crossed sides to join the Tories.
Zahida Noori, a Labour councillor in Southall, accused the Conservatives of “lies” and said she had no intention of resigning from the Labour Party.
But she admitted she had signed a “blank piece of paper” and given it to supporters of Gurcharan Singh, a prominent councillor who led the defection of five local Labour politicians to the Conservatives at the beginning of the week.
She intended the piece of paper she signed to be used to support Mr Singh’s unsuccessful attempt to be selected as Labour’s candidate for the by-election.
Instead, he defected when he failed to make the shortlist, claiming Labour was not willing to have a turban-wearing Sikh as an MP.
Advertisement
Mr Cameron’s repeated visits to Ealing Southall indicate how seriously he is contesting the by-election. Two senior Conservatives have admitted to The Times that they do not think they can win, but they believe a strong performance would demonstrate that the Tories were gaining support among ethnic minority communities.
A member of the Shadow Cabinet said: “We don’t think we will win but we want to come a good second.”
The Liberal Democrats, who came second in the seat in 2005, narrowly ahead of the Conservatives, claim the Tories have made a tactical error in making their campaign too personality-based by focusing heavily on their candidate, Tony Lit, whose father founded the Asian commercial radio station Sunrise.
Lib Dem campaign literature will hit back by highlighting that Mr Lit lives in Chiswick and not in the constituency itself, and claiming that he has neither had to suffer the local transport system and congestion, nor had to rely on local services, particularly Ealing hospital.
The Lib Dems’ opposition to the Iraq war also features strongly in their own literature, with one campaign newspaper carrying two prominent photographs of George Bush with Tony Blair, even though he is no longer Prime Minister.
Advertisement
The by-election, which takes place next Thursday, comes after the death last month of Piara Khabra, who was Labour MP for Ealing Southall from 1992. His majority at the general election in 2005 was 11,440.
Meanwhile Sir Menzies Campbell, the Lib Dem leader, made a campaign visit yesterday to Sedgefield, in the North East, where another by-election takes place on the same day, after Tony Blair’s announcement that he will stand down as the MP for the constituency.
Crossing the line
July 3: Liberal Democrats reveal Brij Mohan Gupta, deputy chairman of Ealing Southall Tories, has defected to the Lib Dems
July 9: Labour says disillusioned member Kuldeep Singh Grewal will give up campaign as an Independent and back Labour
July 9: Conservatives unveil defection of five Labour councillors to Tories: Gurcharan Singh, Manjit Singh, Maninder Kaur Keith, Jarnail Singh Jandu and Jandish Gupta
July 9: Conservatives claim ex-Tory council candidate Gulbash Singh will withdraw as an Independent to back Tories
July 10: Tories claim a sixth Labour councillor, Zahida Noori, has defected to Conservatives
July 11: Labour issues statement from Ms Noori attacking “Tory lies” and denying any defection
July 13: Parmod Kad and Sarbjit Singh Gill, ex-Labour councillors in Hounslow, join the Conservatives