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Former minister Phil Woolas has lost his parliamentary seat and has been suspended from the Labour Party after he was found guilty of illegal practices under election law.
There will be a re-run of the Oldham East and Saddleworth parliamentary election after a court ruled the result void because Woolas knowingly made false claims about an opponent.
Woolas beat Liberal Democrat Elwyn Watkins in May by just 103 votes. But Watkins challenged the result, claiming the Labour incumbent had lied about him in campaign literature.
Watkins accused the former immigration minister of stirring up racial tensions in the constituency and of falsely claiming the Lib Dem had failed to condemn death threats made against Woolas by extremists.
In a landmark ruling this morning Mr Justice Nigel Teare and Mr Justice Griffith Williams said Woolas was guilty of illegal practices under election law.
House of Commons authorities have since confirmed that following the ruling Woolas is no longer an MP.
The case was brought under Section 106 of the Representation of the People Act which prohibits candidates from making any "false statement of fact in relation to the candidate's personal character or conduct" unless they believed it was true.
Upon his appointment as a Home Office minister in 2008, Woolas immediately said he would toughen up legislation on immigration, and that numbers of migrants might have to be reduced because of the economic crisis: "It’s been too easy to get into this country in the past, and it’s going to get harder."
In 2009 he was embroiled in two rows – one over the settlement rights of former Gurkha soldiers in which he often came off second best in clashes with their champion, actress Joanna Lumley, before the government caved in.
The second was over his expenses when it was claimed that he had submitted receipts including ladies' shoes, clothing, nappies and personal items. He was cleared of this. There were also complaints about his alleged use of his communications allowance to create a party political website.
Elected in 1997, Woolas got his first ministerial job in 2003 when he was made deputy leader of the House of Commons, number two to Peter Hain. He was later moved to the Department for Communities and Local Government and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs before ending up in the Home Office.
Following his election victory but Labour's overall defeat he was made a shadow home office minister.
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