London, May 4, 2005
PTI
As the UK goes to polls tomorrow to elect a new 659-member
Parliament, most opinion polls are forecasting a Labour
victory for third term, but with reduced majority.
The Labour had secured a landslide majority of 166
in the 2001 elections with the party bagging 412 seats
as against 166 by the Conservatives in the House.
At the time of dissolution of Parliament Labour had
a strength of 408 and a government majority of 161.
But according to the latest opinion poll conducted
by ICM, the Labour may be returned to power with its
majority cut to below 80.
In a bid to woo Asian votes, both Labour and Conservative
parties have fielded more non-resident Indian (NRI)
candidates.
Eighty-year-old NRI Piara Singh Khabra, who is seeking
a re-election from Ealing Southall as a Labour nominee
is the oldest candidate in the field and is expected
to pull it off yet again, though with a reduced margin.
In 1997, Khabra delivered one of Labour's biggest
majorities, 21,423. In the 2001 elections, his winning
margin was reduced to 14,000.
In Leicester, about 100 km from here, Keith Vaz,
former minister seeking re-election on Labour ticket
is pitted against Paramjit Singh Gill of Liberal Democrat.
Labour generally enjoyed the support of a majority
of Asians, particularly NRIs but it has alienated
a sizeable number of Muslims on the issue of Iraq
war.
Prominent among them are Shailesh Vara, vice chairman
of the party who is contesting from North West Cambridgeshire,
Jaswant Singh Birdi (Coventry North East), Rishi Saha
(Brent South), Priti Patel (Nottingham North), Sandip
Verma (Wolverhampton South West), Khalid Hussain (Rochdale)
and Sudesh Mattu (Nottingham South).
Though Iraq continued to haunt Prime Minister Tony
Blair during the last one week of the campaigning,
the main issues that attracted most attention are
the National Health Service, economy, crime, education
and asylum.
Winding up his campaigning last night, Blair gave
clearest indication yet that Labour will not raise
National Insurance contributions to pay for a boost
to health spending in the latter half of this decade
if it wins tomorrow's general election.
The Prime Minister said the 8 billion pounds annual
increase in National Insurance introduced in 2002
"takes care of the catch-up that was needed for
the NHS".
Labour introduced the increase in NI three years ago
after a report by Sir Derek Wanless set out how the
UK should catch up with the European average in health
spending.
Asked by Chanell 4 News last night whether there
was any possibility of another review in the next
parliament calling for a further NI increase, Blair
replied: "No."
The polling will be held between 0700 hrs and 2200
hrs and the counting of votes will be taken up soon
after with the first results expected by Friday morning.
