12/9 North by North West ~ Blog of Asad Mirjat

North by North West

Labour prepares for the Oldham East and Saddleworth election

December 7, 2010 at 9:28 PM

Labour is selecting its candidate for the Oldham East and Saddleworth by-election, and accelerating the process.

Labour's ruling body - the NEC - will interview candidates and draw-up a shortlist towards the end of this week. On Sunday the local party will meet to vote on their new candidate.

But I gather preparation work has been underway for some time.

I have been told Iain Wright, the Hartlepool MP, has been lined-up to the be the campaign's political director.

He won his own seat in a by-election in 2004 when Peter Mandelson stood down as the MP for Hartlepool.

Mr Wright has already held informal conversations with some of the potential candidates, well before the Woolas case was resolved.

Labour List has drawn up a list of confirmed and potential candidates which includes a number of names which would distance the party from the Woolas saga.

Among them Josh MacAlister is the youngest candidate and could be the face of change.

Peter Wheeler is a former member of the NEC and is a popular Labour character.

Meanwhile Afzal Khan is running a professional campaign and as a Muslim would certainly draw a line under the Woolas affair.

As for the date of the by-election, the Liberal Democrats want to take advantage of their headstart and are aiming for 13th January.

But Labour prefers a slightly longer campaign with voting on 3rd February.

Once the writ is moved, a by-election must be held within 15 to 19 working days. This means that Labour will probably not move the writ until next year.

I'm told the Lib Dems might break convention and move the writ themselves, possibly with Tory support. But I think it's much more likely that Labour will decide.

Phil Woolas and the outcome of the judicial review

December 7, 2010 at 3:32 PM

On Monday the Commons Speaker, John Bercow, ruled that MPs could finally discuss the issues surrounding Phil Woolas.

That's because the former Labour MP's legal battle has finally ended in defeat, after the High Court ruled on Friday against his judicial review.

But should MPs wish to debate this case, they will find it has become even more complicated.

A judicial review is a type of appeal, but it considers the decision-making process, not the decision itself.

Mr Woolas did well to get even that far.

The law was deliberately drafted to avoid exactly this kind of legal delay; once an MP has been disqualified, they are expected to simply shut-up and go.

The courts started dealing with Parliamentary election petitions back in 1870. 76 MPs have lost their seats since then, the last in 1924.

But such a decision has never been judicially reviewed until now.

Normally any disputed issues of law should be considered before a judgment is reached, but in this case it was not clear that such an issue had arisen.

Lord Justice Thomas, Mr Justice Tugendhat and Mrs Justice Nicola Davies agreed to "exceptionally grant permission".

This gave Phil Woolas the chance to argue that the judges had misinterpreted his attacks on Elwyn Watkins as personal, rather than political.

It was a critical legal issue because political attacks are perfectly legal and would not have resulted in Mr Woolas losing his seat.

During the election, Mr Woolas claimed Elwyn Watkins had promised to live in the constituency but was not really doing so.

The Election judges ruled this was a personal attack: "A person who breaks his promise is untrustworthy."

But the High Court overruled them and agreed with Phil Woolas.

They ruled that an attack had to be either political or personal, it could not be both. This they decided was a political attack, even if it was untrue.

However, it is worth remembering the Election judges had made pretty clear that this issue alone would not have been enough to evict Phil Woolas from Parliament.

Far more important was the false allegation that Elwyn Watkins had been wooing Muslim extremists.

The Election Court took this to mean violent extremists.

The High Court upheld the conviction on this basis because such a serious accusation went "from being a statement as to Mr Watkins' political position to a statement about his personal character."

But Mr Woolas has always argued that he accused his opponent of wooing Muslim extremists but not violent extremists.

Mr Watkins' lawyers successfully argued there was no such distinction, and indeed the leaflets showed photographs of Muslims jailed for violence.

But because this was a judicial review rather than an appeal, those arguments could not be heard again.

The High Court could only rule on the application of the law and it decided that on this far more serious charge, the Election Court had judged correctly.

Mr Woolas' supporters will share his anger and frustration that he cannot appeal and argue his case again.

But he knew that he was taking a serious political gamble when he sanctioned his all-out campaign. He just did not realise the stakes were as high as they were.

Phil Woolas hoped to make political headlines in victory, in the end he made legal history in defeat.

Oldham East and Saddleworth's 'phoney war'

November 29, 2010 at 4:16 PM

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There is no date yet for a by-election in Oldham East and Saddleworth but there is plenty of campaigning.

It will not be officially called until the High Court has ruled on the outcome of Phil Woolas' request for a judicial review of the decision to force him from the Commons.

But on the streets of the constituency a phoney war is already being fought.

I spent some of the weekend with the Liberal Democrat campaign which has the advantage of a candidate in place and a head-start.

In an email to supporters, Liberal Democrat HQ anticipates a by-election in early January: "There could be as few as eight working days in 2011 before Polling Day.

"That means we must win this by-election before Christmas. Please do not wait until the New Year to help out."

The campaign has had support from across the country. But the team admits it's difficult to maintain momentum when there is no election date and it's very cold.

This is even more tricky for Labour since Phil Woolas was one of their MPs and they cannot put a candidate in place until he moves on.

They are campaigning but unofficially.

In another email we've seen, Labour writes: "The Lib Dems are swamping the constituency with activists from across the country. We run the serious risk of being out campaigned if we don't rise to this challenge."

Indeed Lib Dem volunteers say they are getting a good response on the doorstep.

But they must handle it carefully.

At a Christmas fair I spoke to a few voters who were unhappy with the amount of campaigning. They didn't think it should start until the legal situation has been resolved.

I wondered during the General Election whether the Liberal Democrats had alienated some voters by putting out too many leaflets.

It seems for some, they are doing the same again.