What will be the impact of Lit attending a Labour fundraiser?

There are two major UK politics stories today – the first being news of Southall Conservative candidate Tony Lit’s appearance at a recent Labour fundraising dinner – more details here. With the by-election only four days away, it remains to be seen what chance the Conservatives still have to win.

The second is the publication of an ICM poll in the Sunday Telegraph giving Labour 40, the Conservatives 33 and the Lib Dems 19. This is Labour’s biggest lead since September 2005 and would give them a majority of 114. Will this increase calls for an autumn election? These are very rare in modern British politics; the only one in the last 40 years, October 1974, saw Labour scrape home with a 3-seat majority.

Guest Editor’s Note:

Just a few words to say “thanks for having me” and that the full-time editor will be back in charge tomorrow. Running the site has made me appreciate just how much work goes into running it on a daily basis, not just in terms of the early starts (I’m sure that Test and others will appreciate Mike’s return!) but also in deciding what stories to run and making sure that the threads don’t get too long, so next time you’re posting, spare a thought for Mike, as keeping pb.com going is a big undertaking.

Thanks for the supportive comments, and the site also seems to have been fairly well-behaved during the last week. Thanks too to Rod Crosby and Peter the Punter for their guest articles – PtP’s “Thoughts from the Other Side”, complete with crystal ball, will be out later today. It’s been quite hard work but enjoyable, although it’s fair to say that I probably won’t be doing another Argentina article for a while.

Finally, possibly taking a leaf out of Benedict’s book, a final plug for The Election Game – if anyone would like to know more about it, please click on the logo below to send me an email, and the next Game will feature the by-elections. I will of course also be running a prediction competition on pb.com for Sedgefield and Southall, which should be out early next week.

All the best and enjoy the rest of your weekends.

Paul Maggs “Double Carpet”

Guest Editor

Mike Smithson will be back tomorrow

Paul Maggs runs The Election Game – click on the logo to email for more information.