The writ has been moved today for the Dunfermline and West Fife by-election following the death of Rachel Squire on 5 January.
The election will take place on 9 February, in three weeks time. So plenty of time for Liberal Democrats to get here before they receive their ballot papers for the leadership election after 6 February.
The result in may put the Liberal Democrats in second place in this seat so we are in the position to challenge Labour for this seat.
Rachel Squire Labour 20,111 47.4 -7.1
David Herbert Liberal Democrat 8,549 20.2 +5.9
Douglas Chapman SNP 8,026 18.9 +1.1
Roger Smillie Conservative 4,376 10.3 +0.6
Susan Archibald Scottish Socialist Party 689 1.6 -0.8
Ian Borland UK Independence Party 643 1.5 +0.1
So far the candidates announced are Willie Rennie for the Liberal Democrats and Douglas Chapman for the SNP.
Labour are expected to pick MEP Catherine Stihler, who is expected a baby in March, after they bent party rules allowing her to stand without first resigning her European seat.
Without resigning her European seat... Is she worried that she might be beaten by the Lib Dem?
ReplyDeleteShe has to give up her Euro seat if she wins (like Huhne did) anyway.
ReplyDeleteUpstart, she or the party mechanism might be Labour normally have to resign from being MEPs before seeking election top Westminster.
ReplyDeleteRichard, she doesn't actually as a look at the Northern Irish double up MP/MEPs in recent years shows however the main parties on Mainland Britain do as does their list electoral system as opposed to AV in Northern Ireland.