The death of Michael Meacher means the first by-election of this Parliament is upon us — as well as the first with Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader. The exact timings have yet to be announced but sometime before the end of 2015 seems likely. The seat is likely to be a shoo-in for Labour: Oldham West & Royton and its predecessor constituency have been represented by Meacher since 1970 and by Labour since 1950 (minus one by-election in 1968). But strange things happen in by-elections and Ukip managed to increase its vote share in May’s general election by 17 per cent to 20.6 per cent. Labour has a whopping 14,738 majority but the Kippers see this as an opportunity to test out Labour’s new direction under Jeremy Corbyn. A Ukip spokesman explains:
‘The Corbynista politics do not appeal to the core vote in Oldham. He might have an appeal in certain parts of the world but that seat isn’t made up of students and Hampstead socialists.
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