Cameron faces poll test after legislator quits
Source: Agencies |
August 7, 2012, Tuesday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
BRITISH Prime Minister David Cameron faces a public test of his government's slumping popularity after a prominent Conservative legislator said yesterday she was quitting for family reasons and moving to join her husband in New York.
The decision by Member of Parliament Louise Mensch, an author of popular "chick-lit" romantic fiction who entered parliament in the 2010 national election, will trigger a by-election in her marginal seat in Corby in the English Midlands.
Cameron's center-right Conservatives, the senior party in the two-year-old coalition government with the left-leaning Liberal Democrats, are trailing in the polls behind a resurgent Labour opposition as the economy struggles to recover from the effects of the global financial crisis.
Labour will hope to regain the constituency after narrowly losing it at the last general election, inflicting a short-term blow on Cameron, although doing little to dent the coalition's 83-seat majority in parliament.
The Conservatives' standing with British voters has declined after a poorly received budget in March that cut earnings tax for the richest and raised levies on the elderly, prompting accusations the coalition was out of touch with ordinary people.
Mensch, 41, who wrote best-sellers such as "Career Girls," "Glamour" and "Desire" under her maiden name Louise Bagshawe, won praise for her close questioning of Rupert and James Murdoch in a parliamentary committee inquiry over phone hacking.
She married Peter Mensch, the manager of rock band Metallica, in June last year.
The decision by Member of Parliament Louise Mensch, an author of popular "chick-lit" romantic fiction who entered parliament in the 2010 national election, will trigger a by-election in her marginal seat in Corby in the English Midlands.
Cameron's center-right Conservatives, the senior party in the two-year-old coalition government with the left-leaning Liberal Democrats, are trailing in the polls behind a resurgent Labour opposition as the economy struggles to recover from the effects of the global financial crisis.
Labour will hope to regain the constituency after narrowly losing it at the last general election, inflicting a short-term blow on Cameron, although doing little to dent the coalition's 83-seat majority in parliament.
The Conservatives' standing with British voters has declined after a poorly received budget in March that cut earnings tax for the richest and raised levies on the elderly, prompting accusations the coalition was out of touch with ordinary people.
Mensch, 41, who wrote best-sellers such as "Career Girls," "Glamour" and "Desire" under her maiden name Louise Bagshawe, won praise for her close questioning of Rupert and James Murdoch in a parliamentary committee inquiry over phone hacking.
She married Peter Mensch, the manager of rock band Metallica, in June last year.
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