Straw: Facing local poll threat

As May 5 looms, the government is hoping to neutralise the Iraq factor, although opposition to the conflict could play against Labour in a number of key seats.

Foreign secretary Jack Straw is facing a challenge in his Blackburn constituency. The seat has a large number of Muslim voters and Labour's stance on the Iraq war, coupled with anti-terror laws, have gone down badly with the local community.

Straw has a majority close to 10,000 but Labour concedes that the Iraq factor could make the seat more marginal in the forthcoming general election.

The Asian vote accounts for nearly 30 per cent of the total, and local Muslim clerics have spoken out strongly against Straw.

The Tory candidate Imtiaz Ameen, a Muslim who was against the war, appears set to put in a strong performance.

Straw's local woes grew recently when it was claimed a wealthy Muslim businessman was offered the prospect a peerage in exchange for not contesting the foreign secretary’s seat.

'Peerage'

Yousuf Bhailok, a friend of the foreign secretary and a former head of the Muslim Council of Great Britain, says the meeting took place last September.

It came as he put himself forward for the local Conservative nomination.

Craig Murray, the former British ambassador to Uzbekistan, is also set to stand against Straw.

As a result of the challenges Labour is treating this once solid seat as a marginal which could fall on the basis of unexpected electoral arithmetic.

In Bethnal Green and Bow, the pro-war Labour MP, Oona King, is facing an uphill task in fending off a strong challenge from Respect's George Galloway.

In last year's European elections Respect outpolled Labour in the area, and Galloway hopes his own brand of firebrand socialism will allow him to overturn King's 10,057 majority.

Asians account for nearly 40 per cent of voters, and a significant number of local electors were opposed to the Iraq conflict.