What if LAB fails to win back city hall as well?

No quibbling – Bradford West was a disaster for both LAB and its leader. To fall so far back with real voters in a real election after a period when the coalition has been on the back foot is hard to excuse.

Much is being made of the size of the Asian communities within the constituency – but according to the 2001 census 43% are Asian, and 52.6% are white. Granted things might have changed a bit since then but but the Asian communities are not as overwhelmingly dominant as some Labour apologists are saying.

The other factor is that this seemed to come as a total surpise although we got a whiff on Wednesday that something was happening following what the bookies were describing as a massive gamble on Gallow.

I just wonder whether this will raise further question marks about Ed Miliband and what might happen if Labour/Ken doesn’t win the London mayoral election.

Certainly with national poll leads of 10% Labour is looking pretty good at the moment – how come then that the party did so badly last night.

The London election is a lot tighter and the latest polling has Boris with an 8% lead.

Also on May 3rd there are local elections in many parts including Scotland. Would an erosion by the SNP into Scottish Labour’s councilor base also take the gloss of what should be very good news on the day?

A narrative of Bradford failure; London failure; Scotland failure is hardly what the party’s young leader needs.

The bookies have tightened the prices on Ed not making it as leader to the general election.

@MikeSmithsonOGH