Forget Miliband

Yesterday David Miliband resigned as MP for South Shields. Interesting stuff considering how the public like him more the Ed. But why are the Tories that interested by it? The best they can hope for is a UKIP win in a safe Labour seat? There is another corner of the country to be looking at.

Do you know this man. This is the Lib Dem MP for Portsmouth South, Mike Hancock. His hands are his problem as he has self confessed to being 'inappropriate', in similar circumstances to the way Lord Rennard has been in trouble, to a mentally ill constituent. But this isn't the first case of  his wondering hands (see Guido Fawkes for all the details). Mike Hancock is also a Councillor for Portsmouth and yesterday a committee decided that there needed to be an independent investigation by a lawyer into Mr Hancock and his actions. It's not likely to go well and it may cost him his job, although this inquiry is going to take at least 2 months.

So what does this mean. A very likely by-election in a Con-LibDem marginal. No chance for Labour again and hopefully UKIP will be less dominant when the issue comes to a head. The Tories do have more of a presence here too with the odd Tory councillors in the constituency and actually a local branch that seems fairly active from looking on the Conservative Party website (see http://www.portsmouthsouthconservatives.com/). Although on the other hand there is a higher mountain to climb than in Eastleigh when it comes to numbers (5000 not 3500).

So don't look to South Shields, watch with some interest what is going on in Portsmouth.