Leicester South Liberal Democrats last night selected Parmjit Singh Gill as their candidate for the Leicester South by-election, at a hustings in the constituency.
Gill was previously the MP for Leicester South from 2004 to 2005, having gained the seat from Labour in the 2004 by-election.
Current MP Sir Peter Soulsby (Labour) is resigning so that he can stand to be Leicester’s first elected mayor.
Commenting on his selection Parmjit Singh Gill said,
It’s an honour and privilege to be selected to fight Leicester South for the Liberal Democrats. Only last May the Labour MP convinced constituents that he was committed to representing them in Parliament. Less than a year later he has decided that actually he would rather be an elected Mayor for the City.
People living in Leicester deserve more respect than that. We have been taken for granted by Labour MPs and the Labour council for too long. I was born in the Constituency and have lived in Leicester all my life, I would never turn my back on the very people who put their trust in me.
Liberal Democrats won a historic by-election victory in Leicester South in 2004. Once a by-election is called, my team and I are ready to rise to the challenge and do it again. The people of this city deserve nothing less.
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12 Comments
Lambs. Slaughter.
Shame!It was time to move on from 2004.Afresh face for the voters was needed from the lib dems.All we got is a reject from the past.
I totally abhor those shameful and iliberal views, direct from the midst of Midsomer. Parmjit was a fine MP for the short period he was in Westminster.
Why he was not returned was because Cowley Street failed to back the campaign with meaningful resources. Having been to Leicester in 2005, it was only too apparent. And we must regret that misinformation was fed into HQ by people who should know better.
Despite this, six years on, Parmjit remains an active councillor, and the size of his victory in the selection by a ratio of almost 5:1 shows that local members do not think they or Leicester South need a fresh face.
We must all make the effort time and go to leicester to help Parmjit achieve the victory he has already proved he is capable of winning for the party.
It is our best chance for quite a few years of electing a BME MP. Having an ethic minority MP on our green benches will make it easier for everyone to gain BME votes. Even in Midsomer West.
Oh – how typically negative ?! A tad cynical methinks ?
I helped the very able, gracious and gentlemanly Parmjit when he was victoriously elected in 2004 and I’ll be there to help him again this time !
At least he has stuck with the local electorate: fighting to defend the seat in 2005, and standing as the Lib Dem candidate to try and win it back again in 2010 !!!
It’s not surprising the electorate despair of politicians is it when they read the miserly and negative comments posted above mine !! ??
Onwards + Upwards !!
Nick Cotter.
We have not a chance in Leicester south. We need to get out of this coalition now. By 2015 there’ll be nothing left of us.
Worse, not only is there every chance of coming a bad third here, but I’m less than happy about the way the likely Labour winner has been chosen. Is that the rustle of parachute silk echoing through the streets of the Saff? Ye gods.
My parachute is rip-stop nylon, a material perhaps useful when in coalition.
It matters not a jot to me the colour, age, gender, sexuality of a candidate.
I look forward to an election based on issues and the character of the candidates.
As for the doom-mongers (and indeed doom-brained) some of us predate the “merger most foul” when even when we were trounced by the Greens in the Euro elections we dug in, did our own thing and pulled through.
I wouldn’t expect anything different now.
I’m very much looking forward to relieving my conscience of having voted for Parmjit Singh Gill and the Lib Dems. I thought I was going to have to wait five years.
Hardly a surprise given that about two thirds of the LibDem membership in Leicester are Sikhs (as stated in the full memo part of which is below), many of whom appear to be related to him. He also has a history of paying the membership fees of many members. The following is from the memo sent to LibDem head office by the internal Returning Officer for the 2005 General Election selection process, won by Gill:
I think it is apparent that there are a large number of members, mostly if not wholly from the Sikh community, who have a strong personal loyalty to Parmjit Gill, even though some of them don’t seem to like him very much, and may not actually share the aspirations of other members. There are some anomalies in the membership: there were two dead people (who had been dead for over a year) on the list of 88 members whose subscriptions were renewed by telephone last April using Parmjit Gill’s credit card. There are also two people who have, according to Sumal Fernando, given him a signed statement, which he has passed to me, which states that they are not Liberal Democrats and have never been members of the Party, but their names are on the same list. There is some suspicion that some members are not in possession of membership cards, and have not themselves paid a subscription.
@Folty Towers
“according to Sumal Fernando”
Would that be the father of Chamali and Chandila Fernando who left the LibDems for the Tories in 2009?
I only ask because I want to know.
Ian Sanderson –
He is indeed the same Sumal Fernando – who FWIW once stood in a general election in Leicester, for the SDP against Janner in ’87 IIRC.
When is the by-election being held?