By-elections in Corby, Manchester and Cardiff

Although the Police & Crime Commissioners will undoubtedly dominate the news today, there are three by-elections being contested at the same time.

Margot Parker is UKIP's candidate for the Corby & East Northants by-election, made vacant by the resignation of Tory pin-up girl, Louise Mensch to spend more time with her family.  Barring a last gasp effort by the Tory faithful it is very likely that UKIP will upset the apple cart with this by-election.

Cllr Chris Cassidy is also contesting a council by-election for Manchester Central whilst Simon Zeigler is contesting Cardiff South & Penarth.

Good luck to everyone involved!

Police Commissioner candidate announced at Corby Launch

UKIP's by-election campaign for Corby was launched today with UKIP candidate Margot Parker joined by UKIP MEPs Nigel Farage, Roger Helmer, Derek Clark and Stuart Agnew and activists from all over the country.

The UKIP candidate for the role of Police & Crime Commissioner for Northamptonshire Police, Jim MacArthur, was also officially announced at the Corby campaign launch.  MacArthur has served in the RAF, Army, SAS and as a Special Constable.

Tories & Labour talking down Corby election prospects

With the "resignation" of Tory MP, Louise Mensch, Corby is very much in the news and both Labour and the Tories are warning their respective party faithful that they're going to lose the election.

Labour is odds on to win the by-election but by talking their chances down they will hope to get a bigger turn-out to consolidate the lead they think they have.  The Tories will hope that by conceding defeat already they will be able to motivate more of their supporters to come out and vote and narrow the gap and perhaps allow them to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.

But all this is a bit presumptuous by both Labour and the Tories who seem to think they have a god given right to carve up the country between them.  The bookies are giving UKIP half the odds of the Lib Dems to win in Corby and Westminster by-election results in the last couple of years have been really quite promising for UKIP.  Council by-elections have been great recently with a couple of outright wins in three- and four-way fights.

The UKIP candidate when the election is eventually called is Margot Parker, a Corby local who's already got the support of local businesses.

UKIP's message is that only Margot can beat Labour in Corby and that's probably right.  The Tories have blown their chances pretty much everywhere for the foreseeable future with their disastrous coalition with the Lib Dems and lying toerag of a Prime Minister, the Lib Dems are a spent force politically and Labour are effectively rudderless with a useless leader and a shadow cabinet of political lightweights.

All Labour have in their favour is that they're not the Tories or Lib Dems.  UKIP is the real opposition now and hopefully Corby will hammer that message home.

UKIP's Corby campaign is being launched at the Samuel Lloyd in Corby at 10am on Saturday by Margot, Nigel Farage, Roger Helmer and Derek Clark.