Labour Hold on in Ealing Southall

Virendra Sharma says policies not PR won election

Labour have held on to the Ealing Southall Constituency with a reduced majority. Veteran Councillor Virendra Sharma is to represent the constituency after beating Nigel Bakhai of the Liberal Democrats into second place.

In his acceptance speech the new MP rejected claims that the Labour campaign had been lacklustre and said policies not slick PR had won the victory.

The Conservative candidate, Tony Lit, finished third. They did however have some success on the night with Greg Stafford winning the Cleveland by-election for the Ealing Borough ward.

Turnout was 42.95% 13.23 points down on 2005.

It remains to be seen whether the result is sufficiently positive for Labour to persuade Gordon Brown to call an early general election or sufficiently positive for the Liberal Democrats to persuade them to continue with the leadership of Menzies Campbell.

July 20, 2007