Campbell faces byelection leadership test

Campbell faces byelection leadership test


Matthew Tempest and agencies
Monday July 16, 2007
Guardian Unlimited

A poor showing in this week's Ealing Southall byelection could prompt calls for Sir Menzies Campbell's resignation, the party's former campaign manager admitted today.

Tim Razzall, who masterminded the 2001 and 2005 elections for then party leader Charles Kennedy, warned that are "clearly some people in the party" who would use Friday's result as a "catalyst to bring things to a head".

The Liberal Democrats are facing a tight squeeze in Thursday's byelection, where they came second in 2005.

However, the Tories and Labour are both throwing resources and manpower at the contest.

Lord Razzall today told BBC Radio 4's World at One: "There are clearly some people in the party who are complaining about Ming as leader and I think a lot of them are using the Ealing byelection as a sort of catalyst to bring things to a head.

"My own view is that would be a serious mistake. We would look silly if we were to attempt to change the leader and a lot of the criticisms of Ming are unfair."

And Sir Menzies' former communications chief, Mark Littlewood, told the programme: "The truth of the matter is that over the last year or so, the Liberal Democrats' electoral performance has been somewhat underwhelming.

"Ealing Southall is by no means home turf for the Liberal Democrats, but if you wanted the sort of electoral test in which you would expect the party to do well, surely this is it."

If the result on Thursday was poor, people in the party would start to get "a little nervous", said Mr Littlewood.

And he added: "The truth is, if you believe the opinion polls, the party's lost perhaps 4% or 5% of the vote since the last election.

"If that dropped much further or if Liberal MPs with majorities of one or two thousand started to think that their future prospects could be in danger, then I think that you would see change."

But Sir Menzies' chief of staff, Ed Davey, dismissed suggestions that his position was under threat, insisting he was "absolutely" certain he would lead the Lib Dems into the next general election.

Mr Davey said any discontent in the party came only from a handful of "noises off".

He told World at One: "The future of the party and the leadership doesn't depend on one byelection. That would be absurd.

"What it depends on is clear policies and clear principles, and Ming has ensured that the party has a clear, distinctive and principled position."

Sir Menzies made clear only last week that he fully intended to lead his party into the next general election.

Ordinarily, Ealing Southall would be a safe Labour seat, with a majority of 11,440 at the last election. However, byelections outside the usual parliamentary cycle receive more attention and resources, not to mention fringe candidates.

In 2005 the Lib Dems benefited from a swing of more than 14% - largely due to opposition to the Iraq war among the largely ethnic minority constituents.

However, the Tories only came 1,300 votes behind in third place and are believed to be fighting a strong campaign this time.

Their candidate, Tony Lit, will be the guest of honour at a "Cocktails with Cameron" party at Ealing town hall tonight, despite revelations that he previously donated money to the Labour party as part of his role at Sunrise Radio.