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Labour wins fiercely fought by election
LABOUR'S majority in Ealing Southall was slashed to just over 5,000 last night after a fiercely fought by-election.
The contest followed the death of veteran Labour MP Piara Khabra, who had represented Ealing Southall for 15 years.
Virendra Sharma, the Labour candidate, was victorious with 15,188 votes, giving him a majority of 5,070 over his nearest rival, Liberal Democrat Nigel Bakhai.
Mr Sharma pledged to following in the previous incumbent's footsteps and help to unite the diverse communities of Ealing and Southall, adding that he was "happy and comfortable" with the victory.
The result of the by-election, with a high turnout of 43.1 percent, came on the same night that Labour held on to Tony Blair's old seat in Sedgefield.
Tony Lit, a local businessman and former managing director of Sunrise Radio, was representing the Conservative Party, and came in third place with 8,230 votes.
Mr Lit had been expected to produce a stronger challenge, but his campaign was derailed last week when it emerged that he had recently attended a Labour Party fundraiser.
After the results were announced, Mr Lit defended his apparent gaffe: "I don't regret it at all," he said. "I attended this event as managing director of Sunrise Radio. Nine days earlier I was at a David Cameron event, there is nothing unusual about it. It is a regular occurrence for me to go to these events to represent people from all different kinds of backgrounds and all parts of the community."
Counting the votes began shortly after 10pm on Thursday night, when ballot boxes began arriving at Ealing Town Hall.
Mr Sharma was declared the winner just after 2.30am on Friday morning.
In his victory speech, Mr Sharma attributed his win to a rejection of the Conservative party tactics and policies.
He said: "It is a humble rebuke from Britain's most diverse constituency to David Cameron's Conservatives. The people of Ealing and Southall have given Cameron their verdict tonight: we do not trust the Tories to represent us."
Harriet Harman, newly elected deputy leader of the Labour Party, was the only major political figure to put in an appearance at the by election which has kept Ealing gripped for most of this month.
6:43am Friday 20th July 2007
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CommentPosted by: Stuart, W7 on 7:08am Fri 20 Jul 07
Hardly a resounding success for Labour - again someone with a substantial minority of the total vote wins! Still I'm sure he'll follow his fellow MPs and line his pockets at our expense.
Hardly a resounding success for Labour - again someone with a substantial minority of the total vote wins! Still I'm sure he'll follow his fellow MPs and line his pockets at our expense.
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