"Tory trouncing leaves Lib Dems as the real alternative" - John Leech MP

4.25.34pm BST (GMT +0100) Thu 26th Jul 2007

Two poor by-election results, a major policy split and successive weak polls have left the Tories looking like a spent force according to Manchester MP John Leech.

The Liberal Democrats pushed the Tories into a poor third in the recent Ealing Southall and Sedgefield by-elections despite Conservative leader David Cameron personally selecting and endorsing one of the candidates. A number of Tory MPs have even called for a vote of no-confidence in their party leader.

Lib Dem campaigner Nigel Bakhai came a close second in the Ealing Southall byelection. The Conservatives were way down in third.

Meanwhile, a recent ICM poll put the Tories below the point they were at in the run up to the last General Election. The Lib Dems gained two points at the expense of the Tories.

"The Ealing Southall by-election turned into a farce for the Tories after their candidate who was hand-picked by David Cameron, was found to have donated nearly £5,000 to the Labour party just a few months before," said John Leech MP "I visited the Ealing Southall seat during the by-election and people were sick and tired of Cameron's kind of image politics and Labour's years of neglect."

Lib Dem Greg Stone slashed Labour's majority by two-thirds in Tony Blair's former seat.

"The momentum really was with the Lib Dems in Ealing Southall and Sedgefield with the Labour majority cut by half and two-thirds respectively," John continued. "People understand that Lib Dems offer the real opposition to Labour's unpopular policies such as the Iraq war."

"Here in Manchester, it's been a two-horse-race between the Lib Dems and Labour for years. However, the Tories seem to be going backwards despite David Cameron's desire to reconnect with voters in the big cities. In the recent local elections, the Tories finished fourth in more than half of the council seats up for grabs with the Lib Dems winning 6 out of 7."

<<ENDS>>

Notes to editors:

Details of the Guardian/ICM poll can be found at http://politics.guardian.co.uk/conservatives/story/0,,2134051,00.html

The Ealing Southall and Sedgefield by-elections were held on Thursday 19th July 2007. The full results were as follows:

Sedgefield

Phil Wilson (Lab) 12,528 (44.77%, -14.11%)

Greg Stone (LD) 5,572 (19.91%, +8.02%)

Graham Robb (C) 4,082 (14.59%, +0.19%)

Andrew Spence (BNP) 2,494 (8.91%)

Paul Gittins (Ind) 1,885 (6.74%)

Toby Horton (UKIP) 536 (1.92%, +0.36%)

Chris Haine (Green) 348 (1.24%)

Stephen Gash (Eng Dem) 177 (0.63%)

Tim Grainger (Ch P) 177 (0.63%)

Alan "Howling Laud" Hope (Loony) 129 (0.46%, +0.08%)

Norman Scarth (Anti-Crime) 34 (0.12%)

Lab majority 6,956 (24.86%)

11.06% swing Lab to Lib Dems

Ealing Southall

Virendra Sharma (Lab) 15,188 (41.48%, -7.28%)

Nigel Bakhai (LD) 10,118 (27.63%, +3.19%)

Tony Lit (C) 8,230 (22.48%, +0.91%)

Sarah Edwards (Green) 1,135 (3.10%, -1.52%)

Salvinder Dhillon (Respect) 588 (1.61%)

Dr Kunnathur Rajan (UKIP) 285 (0.78%)

Yaqub Masih (Ch P) 280 (0.76%)

Jasdev Rai (Ind) 275 (0.75%)

John Cartwright (Loony) 188 (0.51%)

Sati Chaggar (Eng Dem) 152 (0.42%)

Gulbash Singh (Ind) 92 (0.25%)

Kuldeep Grewal (Ind) 87 (0.24%)

Lab maj 5,070 (13.85%)

5.24% swing Lab to Lib Dems