Keep up the pressure: Ed

STUDENT voice . . . Jordan Strong with Ed Miliband and Debbie Abrahams

LABOUR Party leader Ed Miliband is hoping it will be third time lucky as he urged voters to head to the ballot box and elect Labour candidate Debbie Abrahams on Thursday.

During his third visit to Oldham since campaigning began, he told the Chronicle: “Debbie’s getting really strong support but until the voters actually turn out, we don’t know who is going to win.

Mr Miliband said the by-election had been a tough three-way fight but was about residents being represented by an MP who would stand up to police cuts, VAT rises and broken promises rather than someone who would go along with them. He slammed Foreign Secretary William Hague’s comments that the Conservatives would have to rescue the country from a huge budget deficit created by Labour.

He said: “William Hague is wrong about that. They are trying to justify cuts driven by a Conservative ideology and blame it on us.

“This by-election is a three-way fight but a two-way choice of direction.”

Mrs Abrahams also refuted claims by one Glodwick resident that she had not visited his district, saying she had held a 300-person rally there.

When asked about former Bury North MP David Chaytor, jailed on Friday for fiddling his expenses, Mr Miliband said the reputation of all politicians had been damaged by the scandal.

He said: “The message by that judgement is that politicians are not above the law.

“We need to restore the public’s faith in politics.

Mr Miliband and Mrs Abrahams visited 19-year-old Jordan Strong at his High Crompton home to speak to the Oldham Sixth Form College student left disillusioned since voting Liberal Democrat in the last general election, his first time at the ballot box. Jordan, who plans to study history and politics at university, said he will probably vote Labour on Thursday but was also tempted to spoil his voting slip in protest against all three main parties.

He said: “Nick Clegg needs to come back to Oldham and speak with students face to face.”


ED Miliband was due to issue a rallying call today warning Labour not to take their foot off the gas despite favourable opinion polls.