Nominations have closed for the Beckton by-election and seven candidates will contest the vacant seat:
- AHMED, Syed Hussain – Conservative Party Candidate
- DUNNE, Mark – Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition
- LITHGOW, Jane Alison – Green Party
- MEARS, David – UK Independence Party (UKIP)
- SHEDOWO, Kayode – Christian Peoples Alliance
- THORPE, David – Liberal Democrat
- WILSON, Tonii – Labour Party Candidate
It is a small irony that local voters will have a wider choice in the by-election than they had at the full council election back in May. Then there were only three options: Labour, the Tories and the Christians.
With two new alternatives on the left and UKIP sniping from the right, it will be interesting to see how this plays out. Could David Mears effectively help Labour hold a seat the Tories might otherwise have had an outside chance of winning?
The poll will take place on Thursday 11 September 2014 between the hours of 7:00 am and 10:00 pm.
forestgatedotnet 
The Tories have never had a chance of winning this seat as Labour have it tied up and have had a lot of feet on the ground for weeks, the Conservatives haven’t put in the ground work and appear for some strange reason to be working for the Muslim vote again, a ploy that has seen the vote diminish in recent times.
Strange to see the Liberals showing their faces again after all these years, someone should tell them about their history in this borough?
UKIP will take some of the vote, a few from the Tories 1000 usual showing, and expect them to come 3rd. The Greens and Christian Alliance will take a few hundred votes at most with about 50 for the Trade union and socialists.
I expect the turnout to be low