Jonathan Ashworth selected as Labour’s candidate in Leicester South

Today Labour selected Jonathan Ashworth as their candidate for the forthcoming Leicester South by-election. Ashworth is currently Ed Miliband's 'Head of Party Relations' and his links to the leader will no doubt provoke allegations of parachuting. He was considered the frontrunner after the shortlist was released yesterday and didn't disappoint. Ashworth easily won the candidacy, only requiring his first preferences to win AV ballot. Given Labour are hot favourites to win this by-election Ashworth will almost certainly become the next MP for Leicester South.

Here are the full figures from the selection, courtesy of Leicester Labour:

	Votes	Vote %
Jonathan Ashworth	106	69.3%
Patrick Kitterick	44	28.8%
Neil Clayton	2	1.3%
Mian Mayat	1	0.7%
Josie Channer	0	0.0%

Earlier today the Liberal Democrats also picked their candidate. For the fifth election in a row Parmjit Singh Gill will contest this constituency for the Lib Dems having previously held the seat for 10 months in the mid-noughties. His by-election win in 2004 was an impressive result for the Liberal Democrats but Gill will be on a damage limitation mission this time. Having failed to save their deposit in Barnsley the Lib Dems look certain to drop back behind the Conservatives in this by-election, who were 5.5% behind them last May. Given the poor performance of the minor parties at the 2010 General Election it's unlikely the Liberal Democrats will fall lower than third but their share of the vote will be interesting to watch. They managed 11.7% in 1992 and 13.8% in 1997 so if they drop lower than that alarm bells will be ringing.

Here's the 2010 result, with the current declared by-elections candidates:

By-Election Candidate	2010
Jonathan Ashworth (LAB)	45.6%
Parmjit Singh Gill (LD)	26.9%
- (CON)	21.4%
- (BNP)	3.0%
- (GRN)	1.6%
- (UKIP)	1.5%