Brown accused of insulting memory of MP over crunch by-election

May 1 2008 Liverpool Daily Post

Gordon Brown

GORDON BROWN was yesterday accused of insulting the memory of Gwyneth Dunwoody by kick-starting a crunch by-election before the former Cheshire MP’s funeral had taken place.

Tory MPs protested the May 22 date for the Crewe and Nantwich by-election – just three weeks away – means campaigning will get under way before the Westminster service on May 8.

But Labour insisted the date had been chosen after consultation with the Dunwoody family, who “would not want to see local people go without an MP”.

The party accused Tory leader David Cameron of “running scared” of a contest he must win to claim the Conservatives are now a force in the North.

Meanwhile, Mrs Dunwoody’s daughter Tamsin, a former Welsh Assembly member, is likely to be on the short-list when Labour picks its candidate this week.

And the Liberal Democrat campaign descended into early chaos when its candi-date for the next General Election, Marc Godwin, was ousted in a party row.

The by-election date triggered unpre-cedented pro-tests in the Commons, led by Cheshire Tory MPs Nicholas Winterton (Macclesfield) and his wife Ann Winterton (Congleton).

As a “close friend” of Mrs Dunwoody, Sir Nicholas said: “It appears to me and to others, issuing the writ prior to her fun-eral seems to be unseemly hasty.”