Phil Woolas replacement selected for Saddleworth by-election
Labour has selected the candidate who will attempt to hold Oldham East and Saddleworth for the party after Phil Woolas’ general election victory was overruled by an election court.
Debbie Abrahams, a public health consultant who unsuccessfully fought the adjacent Colne Valley seat in May, was selected by the local party yesterday.
Ms Abrahams faces a tough challenge. She will take on the Liberal Demopcrats’ Elwyn Watkins, who fell just 103 votes short of Mr Woolas at the general election and has enjoyed a blaze of publicity as the slurs against his name by the ex-immigration minister emerged.
Popular anger at the Lib Dems’ decision to abandon their pledge to oppose rises in tuition fees could boost Labour’s chances, however.
“It’s important that the real issues and concerns of people in the borough are not lost during this by-election campaign,” Ms Abrahams said.
“People feel let down by the Lib Dem-Tory broken promises on police cuts, tuition fees and VAT. It doesn’t have to be this way, there is an alternative.”
Ms Abrahams had a disappointing general election campaign, which saw Labour slip from first to third place in the three-way marginal of Colne Valley.
Her failure to replace Kali Mountford in the seat allowed Jason McCartney to take the constituency for the Conservatives, but Labour officials hope Ms Abrahams will be able to produce a better result in 2011.
Oldham East and Saddleworth’s Labour chairwoman Jill Reid said: “With the by-election approaching I know that Labour now has the best candidate to represent Oldham East and Saddleworth in Westminster. Only Labour will stand up for the people in the borough.”
