Date set for election challenge

A date has been set in Oldham for a rare legal bid to force a fresh election over allegedly misleading campaign material.

Defeated Liberal-Democrat Elwyn Watkins wants a re-run of the contest which resulted in former minister Phil Woolas retaining the Oldham East and Saddleworth seat by 103 votes after two recounts in May.

Mr Watkins claims the result was swayed by attacks on him in Labour leaflets over foreign donations, support from Muslim extremists and vote-fixing.

Labour has said it would “robustly defend” the case which is brought under a rarely–used piece of electoral law. The last case was in Ireland in 1911.

Section 106 of the Representation of the People Act (1983) makes it an offence for anyone to publish “any false statement of fact in relation to the candidate’s personal character or conduct” in a bid to prevent them being elected “unless he can show that he had reasonable grounds for believing, and did believe, that statement to be true”.

Mr Watkins said that two publications contained “numerous misleading and erroneous claims regarding my personal character and reputation, and that of my campaign”.

Yesterday, Mr Justice Griffith Williams set the timetable for an election court, which will sit in the Oldham constituency for five days from September 13.

The judge, sitting at London’s High Court, said: “It seems to me that it must be resolved before Parliament reassembles.”

If Mr Woolas, the former immigration minister loses, he could be disbarred from politics for up to five years.

The election result would be deemed void and the other candidates would put themselves forward for a by-election.