Ten throw their hats in by-election ring

TEN candidates will battle it out to take over from Labour’s disgraced former immigration minister Phil Woolas in the January 13 by-election.

They have thrown their hat in the ring for the Oldham East and Saddleworth seat — matching the record set in the 1995 by-election.

Nominations closed at 4pm yesterday for the vacancy after Phil Woolas was stripped of the seat which he scraped in by only 103 votes in May.

An historic election court held in Uppermill in September — the first for 99 years — found that Mr Woolas had deliberately lied about closest rival Elwyn Watkins.

Mr Watkins will once again try to win the marginal for the Lib-Dems, while public health consultant Debbie Abrahams, who contested Colne Valley for Labour in 2010, will battle it out for her party.

Seat

The Conservatives, who last won the seat (then called Littleborough and Saddleworth) in 1992, are sticking with barrister and former Hulme Grammar School pupil Kashif Ali, who came third in the May General Election.

UKIP’s North West Euro-MP Paul Nuttall, a former university lecturer from Merseyside, will stand, as will the Green Party’s Peter Allen, who fought High Peak last year.

Manchester publican Derek Adams represents the BNP, and Stephen Morris from Bury the English Democrats.

The other candidates are: Pirate Party leader Loz Kaye, a teacher at Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts; Monster Raving Loony Party’s Flying Brick (Nick Delves), and David Bishop from the Bus-Pass Elvis Party.

The new constituency was first won by Mr Woolas in 1997, the night Tony Blair’s New Labour swept to power.

Voters will use 56 polling stations across Oldham East and Saddleworth on January 13.