Vote Dave

Dave Rowntree is taking first steps towards becoming Prime Minister, throwing his aeroplane goggles into the council elections this May. Rowntree will be standing in the May 5th elections, running as a Labour candidate:

"I've been a long-standing member of the Labour party and active in local politics for a while.

"I'm a Westminster resident and in my experience of living here, it all looks lovely - there are hanging baskets everywhere - but you only need to scratch beneath the surface and see that there's a lot of deprivation and a lot of inequality around. I think someone needs to do something about it."

Rowntree will be standing in Marylebone High Street ward [pdf] (the councillor for BBC London 94.9, of course); the official document of nomination lists his full name (David Alexander De Horne Rowntree), which might swing some of the Tory votes his way.

There's no borough-wide elections in Westminster this May, this is a by-election to fill a vacant seat, but at the 2006 election the ward returned three tories with around 1,200 votes each; the Lib Dem and Labour candidates scored in the higher 200s. So, probably unlikely Dave will be delivering a victory speech.

The other candidates for the Marylebone High Street ward are Stuart Bonar (Liberal Democrats), Colin Merton (UKIP), and Ian Rowley (Conservative)