Gurcharan Singh has been selected to contest Ealing Southall at the next general election. He was one of five Labour councillors in Ealing to defect to the Conservatives during the by-election in the constituency in July 2007.
The seat was won for Labour at that by-election by Virendra Sharma with a majority of 5,070 over the Liberal Democrats, with Conservative candidate, Tony Lit, in third place.
The Rallings and Thrasher projection (based on the 2005 general election result) of the slightly redrawn seat suggests that Labour will go into the general election defending a notional majority of 13,140 over the Conservatives, with Cllr Singh requiring a swing of 19 per cent to take the seat.
He had been a Labour councillor for 25 years when he defected to the Conservatives and has held a number of civic posts including chair of Housing, chair of Planning, chair of Recycling and Waste, Cabinet member for the Environment, deputy leader of the council and Mayor of Ealing.
Other recent defectors now contesting seats for the Conservatives include Rehman Chishti in Gillingham and Rainham and Jeff Clarke in Wirral South.
