Decision day for ousted Woolas

Former minister and Oldham East and Saddleworth MP Phil Woolas will find out today if he has been successful in his High Court bid to overturn a decision stripping him of his Commons seat.

A specially convened election court declared void the General Election result in Oldham East and Saddleworth which Mr Woolas won by just 103 votes after two recounts.

It removed Mr Woolas as the MP and banned him from standing for election for three years after finding him guilty of deliberately lying about a rival, Liberal Democrat Elwyn Watkins.

But at a recent hearing in London, Mr Woolas’s legal team asked three senior judges to rule that the election court misdirected itself in law and made a flawed decision.

The legal challenge was fast-tracked to ensure the seat does not go too long without an MP.

Mr Woolas was found guilty of illegal practices under election law over comments made in his campaign material.

The election court judges ruled that, although made in the context of an election campaign, the comments clearly amounted to attacks on his opponent’s “personal character or conduct”.

It was argued before the High Court that the election court had misdirected itself on the true meaning and effect of the words “personal character or conduct”.

As a result it had wrongly held that Mr Woolas’s statements, which were about the “political conduct” of his opponent, were also statements about his personal character or conduct.

But a QC for Mr Watkins submitted that the election court was not only entitled but “undoubtedly right” when it made its decision.