U.K. Conservative Party lawmaker Louise Mensch unexpectedly resigned her parliamentary seat today, creating a test for Prime Minister David Cameron who may struggle to retain the narrowly held constituency.
Cameron’s Conservatives will have to defend a majority of 1,951 votes in a special election for the district of Corby and East Northamptonshire in central England. Mensch, who won the seat from the Labour Party at the 2010 general election, said she was resigning to spend time with her family in New York.
“I am very sorry that despite my best efforts, I have been unable to make the balancing act work for our family,” Mensch, 41, said in a letter to Cameron.
The race to replace Mensch, who is best known as a member of the parliamentary committee that investigated the phone- hacking scandal, will also provide a test for Ed Miliband. The Labour leader will need to win the seat to answer his own critics and demonstrate he is able to beat Cameron at the next general election in 2015. Labour held the district between 1997 and 2010.
The Tories have lost support after a string of policy U- turns allowed opponents to say they were incompetent and out to help the rich. Labour says Cameron is increasingly out of touch as the recession deepens and the Conservative-led coalition drives through the deepest budget cuts in British peacetime history.
Cameron has the backing of 33 percent of voters compared with 44 percent who say they back Miliband, according to an Aug. 4 poll of 1,787 people by YouGov Plc (YOU) for the Sunday Times newspaper.
[h=2]Cameron’s Support[/h]Cameron noted in his reply to Mensch that her seat had been Labour for 13 years before her election and that he supported her decision “only because I wish to support you in acting in the best interests of your family, which must come first.”
Labour’s election campaign will focus on “two wasted years of Tory policies,” said Andy Sawford, the party’s prospective parliamentary candidate for Corby.
“This will be a tough election for Labour but we are determined to hold this Tory-led government to account by showing the disastrous impact of their polices on the people of Corby,” he said in a statement released by the party.
Mensch, who has three children, is married to New York- based Peter Mensch, who manages bands including Metallica and Red Hot Chili Peppers. She has been forced to divide her time between the U.K. and the U.S.
Mensch, an author and active user of social media sites such as Twitter, most recently spoke out against Labour lawmakers during a probe into the phone-hacking scandal. She and other Tories refused to back a May 1 parliamentary report that said News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch is “not a fit person” to run the company.
[h=2]Attack on Labour[/h]She attacked five Labour members, including Tom Watson, and one Liberal Democrat for going beyond their mandate.
Mensch has faced difficulties because of her social-media profile. This month police said that a 60-year-old man was charged with threatening her using e-mail and a social- networking site.
Mensch told followers of her Twitter account on Aug. 21 she had received e-mails threatening her children, according to a report in the Daily Telegraph newspaper at the time.
To contact the reporter on this story: Gonzalo Vina in London at [email protected]
To contact the editor responsible for this story: James Hertling at [email protected]
Cameron’s Conservatives will have to defend a majority of 1,951 votes in a special election for the district of Corby and East Northamptonshire in central England. Mensch, who won the seat from the Labour Party at the 2010 general election, said she was resigning to spend time with her family in New York.
“I am very sorry that despite my best efforts, I have been unable to make the balancing act work for our family,” Mensch, 41, said in a letter to Cameron.
The race to replace Mensch, who is best known as a member of the parliamentary committee that investigated the phone- hacking scandal, will also provide a test for Ed Miliband. The Labour leader will need to win the seat to answer his own critics and demonstrate he is able to beat Cameron at the next general election in 2015. Labour held the district between 1997 and 2010.
The Tories have lost support after a string of policy U- turns allowed opponents to say they were incompetent and out to help the rich. Labour says Cameron is increasingly out of touch as the recession deepens and the Conservative-led coalition drives through the deepest budget cuts in British peacetime history.
Cameron has the backing of 33 percent of voters compared with 44 percent who say they back Miliband, according to an Aug. 4 poll of 1,787 people by YouGov Plc (YOU) for the Sunday Times newspaper.
[h=2]Cameron’s Support[/h]Cameron noted in his reply to Mensch that her seat had been Labour for 13 years before her election and that he supported her decision “only because I wish to support you in acting in the best interests of your family, which must come first.”
Labour’s election campaign will focus on “two wasted years of Tory policies,” said Andy Sawford, the party’s prospective parliamentary candidate for Corby.
“This will be a tough election for Labour but we are determined to hold this Tory-led government to account by showing the disastrous impact of their polices on the people of Corby,” he said in a statement released by the party.
Mensch, who has three children, is married to New York- based Peter Mensch, who manages bands including Metallica and Red Hot Chili Peppers. She has been forced to divide her time between the U.K. and the U.S.
Mensch, an author and active user of social media sites such as Twitter, most recently spoke out against Labour lawmakers during a probe into the phone-hacking scandal. She and other Tories refused to back a May 1 parliamentary report that said News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch is “not a fit person” to run the company.
[h=2]Attack on Labour[/h]She attacked five Labour members, including Tom Watson, and one Liberal Democrat for going beyond their mandate.
Mensch has faced difficulties because of her social-media profile. This month police said that a 60-year-old man was charged with threatening her using e-mail and a social- networking site.
Mensch told followers of her Twitter account on Aug. 21 she had received e-mails threatening her children, according to a report in the Daily Telegraph newspaper at the time.
To contact the reporter on this story: Gonzalo Vina in London at [email protected]
To contact the editor responsible for this story: James Hertling at [email protected]