Leicester South By-election Result

Jon Ashworth's red letter day

The result of the Leicester South By-election is in. Probably the longest wait for a result ever. However, they did have all the other ballots to count in the other elections and no council wants to employ unnecessary counters, do they?

Labour won, which isn't surprising. Perhaps Mr.Ashworth can now tell the voters where Labour would cut things in order to balance the books? Or is that wishful thinking.

Here's the result -

Jon Ashworth, Labour Party 19771 57.84%
Zuffar Haq, Liberal Democrats 7693 22.51%
Jane Marion Hunt, Conservative Party 5169 15.12%
Abhijit Pradip Pandya, UKIP 994 2.91%
Howling Laud Hope, Monster Raving Loony William Hill Party 553 1.62%

Labour Majority 12,078


A decisive win for Labour no doubt, but they need to propose as well as oppose.

By the way, Leicester City Council have the best interactive results page of all the councils I've seen. Brilliant!

Leicester South By-election

Tomorrow, amongst other elections, is the parliamentary by-election in Leicester South. This follows the resignation of Sir Peter Soulsby, the last MP for Leicester South, who is putting himself forward as a candidate for elected mayor of the City of Leicester.

The candidates for the by-election are -

Jon Ashworth, Labour Party
Zuffar Haq, Liberal Democrats
Howling Laud Hope, Monster Raving Loony William Hill Party
Jane Marion Hunt, Conservative Party
Abhijit Pradip Pandya, UK Independence Party (UKIP)

It would seem a foregone conclusion that Labour will win it. Not out of any merit. Their leader is still huffing and puffing and signifying nothing. But there might be some surprises. Or maybe just two. As the list is relatively short for a by-election, this gives Alan Hope the chance to mop up more than just the votes of diehard loonies. An ideal protest vote, I'd say (always assuming you want to protest). And UKIP could do well. They've got a candidate of Indian origins whereas the LibDems have one of Pakistani background. Sub-continental politics work well in Leicester. Already Mr.Pandya has caused outrage by suggesting that Islam is, well, not to his taste. The Leicester Mercury, the paper of choice for BBC Radio 4's News Quiz, has been accused by UKIP of twisting his words. So it livened up after all!