Labour Party managers mounted a damage-limitation exercise last night after the humiliation of seeing one of their MPs forfeit her Commons seat on being convicted of an election expenses fraud.
The Tories - delighted by the latest outbreak of Labour "sleaze" - said they would "fight to win" the resulting by-election, which will provide the first significant test of opinion in "Middle England" since the general election.
Fiona Jones became the first MP in 140 years to lose her seat because of electoral malpractice, after a jury at Nottingham Crown Court found her guilty of knowingly making a false return on her 1997 election expenses under the Representation of the People Act.
She was convicted alongside her election agent, Des Whicher. Mr Justice Jowitt ordered the 42-year-old mother of two to do 100 hours of community service, while Whicher was fined £750. But while both immediately announced their intention to appeal, the Labour Party - which had funded their legal costs to date - made it clear they were on their own. A party source said that for reasons of cost, and also because an appeal would have no impact on Jones's forfeiture of her seat, the party had accepted the court's verdict and would not be funding any appeal.
Jones won the previously safe Conservative seat of Newark, in Nottinghamshire, at the general election with a majority of 3,000. The by-election is likely to be held either on May 6th, the date of Scottish, Welsh and council elections, or on the same day as the elections for the European Parliament, June 10th.
As she was driven away from the court yesterday, Jones said she was "disappointed and surprised by this result", while her former agent declared: "I am devastated and I can't believe it. I intend to fight on - my conscience is clear."
But their three-week trial was told that when they handed in their expenses return form, Jones and Whicher either omitted or under-declared significant amounts of expenditure. The return submitted claimed they had spent almost £400 less than the permitted maximum of £8,915, when in fact, the prosecution said, they had spent almost twice the legal limit.
A five-month inquiry was sparked by the defeated Liberal Democrat candidate, Mr Peter Harris, who said his suspicions were first aroused by the numbers of people contacting him to complain about Labour's telephone canvassing. After the election, he said it became clear there were "significant inconsistencies with the level of expenditure being claimed and the level of activity on the ground".
The Conservative Party chairman, Mr Michael Ancram, said: "It's important to remember this happened, not in the last month or two, but at the precise time when Labour were campaigning on the basis that they were going to introduce new high standards into public life."