The Eastleigh News reports what might be accident or might be design – Ukip’s decision to put up a candidate called House against the Lib Dems’ long-standing council leader, Keith House:
Eastleigh’s ruling Lib Dem leader Keith House faces an unusual challenger in next month’s local elections – the Ukip candidate shares the same surname and is alphabetically listed above the Lib Dem by one letter.
John House comes from Chandler’s Ford, some way away from Hedge End’s Wildern ward, which raises the possibility that this is a tactical move by Ukip.
Keith House told Eastleigh News: “It just shows the level at which they treat the electorate. I am sure Wildern voters will see through this pretty quickly!”
One Ukip source said to Eastleigh News: “If there is room for 10,000 houses in Eastleigh, there is room for one more House in Hedge End.”
There are a total of 44 seats on the borough council, which is currently held by 39 Liberal Democrats, 4 opposition conservatives and 1 independent. Fifteen seats on the borough council will be decided on polling day May 22 – almost a third of the seats in the chamber. Eleven of the seats are currently being defended by sitting Lib Dems while the Conservatives stand to win or lose two of their four seats.
Keith House won the seat four years ago with 59% of the vote and a majority of 853 over his nearest rival, the Conservatives.
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4 Comments
Seriously, lots of different parties have done this including the Liberal Democrats. This is hardly news or indeed interesting.
When my byelection was called, many people went into a frenzy worrying that me, Andy Boddington, would lose votes to the Tory, Anthony Bevington.
The coincidence of names had no conspiracy to it. The Tories followed our lead of using mock ballot papers.
They said: Anthony Bevington is No 1 on you ballot paper.
We said: Andy Boddington is No 2.
It worked fine. I won by nearly 200 votes.
I just wonder why Keith House thinks this is important enough for a media comment.
Tactics like this are nothing new and the electorate are smart enough to see through it.
Remember when there were two Roy Jenkins on the ballot paper in the 1982 Glasgow Hillhead by-election.
The electorate knew which one to vote for.
The only time I can recall when such tactics had a decisive effect was when Adrian Sanders narrowly missed becoming a Euro MP due to the intervention of a ‘Literal Democrat’.
Keith House is smart enough to turn UKIP’s ploy to his advantage.
Here in Havering Borough, where the Tories are the largest group and the Residents’ Association is the second largest, UKIP candidates are branded ‘UKIP Local Residents’.