{"id":27862,"date":"2013-02-12T23:28:39","date_gmt":"2013-02-12T22:28:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.huffingtonpost.co.uk\/2013\/02\/12\/satirist-author-john-ofar_n_2672681.html?utm_hp_ref=uk-politics?ncid=GEP"},"modified":"2013-02-12T23:28:39","modified_gmt":"2013-02-12T22:28:39","slug":"labour-select-satirist-as-eastleigh-by-election-candidate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/breaking-news\/labour-select-satirist-as-eastleigh-by-election-candidate\/","title":{"rendered":"Labour Select Satirist As Eastleigh By-Election Candidate"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Labour<\/a> has selected author and satirist John O’Farrell<\/a> as its candidate to fight the Eastleigh by-election<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Announced on Wednesday night, O’Farrell<\/a> is the last of the main party candidates to be picked for the contest on February 28, which was triggered when Liberal Democrat<\/a> ex-Cabinet minister Chris Huhne<\/a> resigned in disgrace.<\/p>\n

The Lib Dems are favourite to retain the seat, which Huhne secured at the 2010 general election with a majority of 3,864. Local councillor Mike Thornton is representing the party.<\/p>\n

LIKE HUFFPOST UK POLITICS ON FACEBOOK<\/a> | FOLLOW US ON TWITTER<\/a><\/p>\n

However, the Tories<\/a> have signalled they are setting aside coalition links to mount a fierce campaign.<\/p>\n

They have selected Maria Hutchings, a staunch eurosceptic and opponent of David Cameron<\/a>‘s gay marriage<\/a> policy.<\/p>\n

Earlier today, Ukip candidate Diane James said Romanians were associated with crime and called for a temporary halt to all immigration.<\/p>\n

James was in the Hampshire constituency for a rally with supporters aided by Ukip leader Nigel Farage.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Labour has selected author and satirist John O’Farrell as its candidate to fight the Eastleigh by-election.
\nAnnounced on Wednesday night, O’Farrell is the last of the main party candidates to be picked for the contest on February 28, which was trigger…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1213,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[487],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-27862","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-breaking-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27862","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1213"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27862"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27862\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}