Coincidence or not? Ukip put candidate named House to take on Eastleigh’s Lib Dem council leader Keith House

keith houseThe 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.

Read more by or more about , , or .
This entry was posted in News.
Advert

4 Comments

  • Seriously, lots of different parties have done this including the Liberal Democrats. This is hardly news or indeed interesting.

  • Andy Boddington 27th Apr '14 - 7:57pm

    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.

  • Peter Chegwyn 27th Apr '14 - 8:20pm

    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.

Post a Comment

Lib Dem Voice welcomes comments from everyone but we ask you to be polite, to be on topic and to be who you say you are. You can read our comments policy in full here. Please respect it and all readers of the site.

To have your photo next to your comment please signup your email address with Gravatar.

Your email is never published. Required fields are marked *

*
*
Please complete the name of this site, Liberal Democrat ...?

Advert



Recent Comments

  • expats
    Trump won US voters because he offered a simple four word solution to ALL their problems "Make America Great Again"(MAGA)..No fancy analyses nor intricate detai...
  • Martin Pierce
    The wake up call was in 2016 when he first won - and for Europe perhaps in 2014 when Russia first marched into parts of Ukraine. There has been no waking up. ...
  • Alex Macfie
    Pandering to anti-immigrant sentiment, or any other far-right narrative, will not win the progressive tendency any votes. People inclined to vote for populism w...
  • Peter Martin
    @ Chris Moore, ".....we need to ....persuade left behind voters that their interests lie in a liberal alternative to right-wing populism." The ...
  • AlexB
    When you listened to his incoherent ramblings on the last televised debate, you wonder what he is going to be like mentally when he's 82 in four years time. Wor...