Candidates accused of staging phoney election war

LIBERAL Democrat supporters in Camden are being poached by campaigns in neighbouring constituencies, casting doubts over the strength of the party’s bid to unseat Labour MPs Frank Dobson and Glenda Jackson.
Jill Fraser, Lib Dem challenger to Mr Dobson in Holborn and St Pancras at the May 5 general election, was greeted by just 16 supporters for her campaign launch at the Magdala pub in South End Green, Hampstead, on Tuesday night.
Campaign managers claimed other rank-and-file members were busy leafleting but election agent Simon Horvat-Marcovic later told the gathering: “Expect a call from colleagues in Brent and Islington asking for help and be prepared to do so.”
With volunteers heading to other constituencies, questions are now surrounding the strength of the campaign team behind Ms Fraser’s fight to beat Mr Dobson – and the resources available to Hampstead and Highgate candidate Ed Fordham, who is squaring up to Ms Jackson,
Liberal Democrat central office has made no secret of the fact that other constituencies are regarded as higher priorities. Brent East – won by the then 29-year-old Sarah Teather at a by-election in 2003 – and Islington South, where former Labour culture minister Chris Smith is standing down and Lib Dems control the council, have both been targeted as winnable seats.
The knife-edge importance of the Islington South battle was shown when Mr Dobson helped launch Labour candidate Emily Thornberry’s campaign on Sunday night.
Liberal Democrat members were this week putting a brave face on the state of their campaigns in Camden.
Keith Moffitt, a Camden councillor, said: “It shows the strength of the Liberal Democrats that we are able to have a campaign in the Camden constituencies and also help colleagues across the border.
“There will be some surprises in the election and Holborn and St Pancras could be a surprise for the Liberal Democrats.”
Mr Fordham, who was chosen by the party at a late stage, said: “We’ve delivered more than 100,000 leaflets in Hampstead and Highgate and there honestly isn’t anything more I could do to win this seat. This is the biggest campaign we’ve ever run here.”
But opponents are already writing off the party’s chances. Tory candidate in Hampstead and Highgate Piers Wauchope, leader of the Conservatives on Camden Council, said: “The Liberal Democrats have made it quite clear they are only targeting four London seats – they do not include Hampstead and Highgate. They do include Brent East, Islington South and Hornsey and Wood Green.”
Labour councillor Theo Blackwell, who is working on the campaign, added: “The Lib Dems are not being straight with people. They are more interested in getting their hands on power than representing the concerns of people in Camden.”
A spokesman for the Lib Dems in Brent said the aim was to win a reconfigured Hampstead constituency in 2009, when boundary changes will favour their party.
And Ms Fraser, a Camden councillor who runs a chip shop in Queen’s Crescent, said it was always party policy to campaign across constituency borders, insisting members from neighbouring campaigns would be backing her, too.
She said: “When I wanted to run for the council as a Lib Dem in Haverstock ward they said I couldn’t win and I did, and if they’re saying it now then I’ll prove them wrong again.”
She added: “My main priority is education. I have two boys who’ve gone to university and I hope the third will follow, but for too many of the young people in Queen’s Crescent that’s still not an option.
“Boys of 16 come into the shop and can’t read what sort of pies we are selling from the board, and I’m ashamed to live in a country where that is the case.”