James Forsyth James Forsyth

If there is no Labour candidate, can Labour MPs campaign for Davis?

Bob Marshall-Andrews, the maverick Labour MP, has offered to campaign for David Davis, The Observer reports. Marshall-Andrews has encouraged other Labour MPs to join him and it is not hard to imagine a few of the other 42 day rebels doing so. This raises an interesting question, if there is no Labour candidate is it a breach of party rules to campaign for the candidate of another party?

There is still no official word on whether or not Labour will field a candidate. Reportedly, Gordon Brown thinks that Labour should leave Davis to twist in the wind and decry the whole exercise as an expensive stunt while Geoff Hoon, the chief whip, is arguing strongly for the party to contest the by-election.

Photo courtesy of Jill Fennell.

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