Are Conservatives fully supporting their Oldham candidate?

Is the lack of Conservative support for Oldham candidate Kashif Ali (picured above) a ploy to ensure a Liberal Democrat victory? That’s the question being asked by Tory supporters as they point to the lukewarm endorsement of Ali in the upcoming January 13 by election.

Ali, the party’s candidate at the May election, was born and raised in Oldham and currently practices law as a full time Barrister in Manchester. He came third in the recent general election with nearly 12,000 votes behind the LibDem candidate who lost by just 183 votes to the former Labour minister Phil Woolas.

He said of his re-selection: “It is a great honour and extremely exciting to be the Conservative candidate for Oldham East and Saddleworth. It’s an honour because I was born and brought up here, I live in the constituency and feel strongly about doing everything I can to help improve the area for local residents.

Conservative MPs are usually encouraged to make a certain number of trips to the constituency to campaign. However the party has so far failed to make any such demands of its MPs.

Other failed and neighbouring candidates who would also usually join the selected candidate on the campaign trail have reportedly had their offers of help ignored.

Party insiders believe that the Conservatives are anxious for the Lib Dems to capture the seat in order to provide a moral boost after the recent battering the coalition partner has faced over student tuition fees.

Labour has objected to the haste with which the writ to hold the election was moved by the Lib Dems and have pointed to the absence of over 1200 students at Oldham based Huddersfield university as a possible reason for the Lib Dems to hold the by election in January. They argue that a large student turnout would hurt the LibDems.

However the Lib Dems, who are fielding candidate Elwyn Watkins, have said that students being away from university meant that more would be at home and willing to vote in the by election. Labour has selected Debbie Abrahams as its candidate.