Cameron to campaign in Barnsley by-election

DAVID Cameron is set to head to Barnsley to campaign for the Tories in the by-election, the Yorkshire Post can reveal.

The Prime Minister will reject the notion adopted by predecessors that premiers do not campaign in a by-election, and travel to South Yorkshire before the poll in Barnsley Central on March 3.

His visit will follow a similar appearance in Oldham East and Saddleworth for last month’s by-election, where the Tories came third .

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The Barnsley by-election has been sparked by the resignation of disgraced Eric Illsley, who quit after being convicted of fiddling his expenses.

Mr Cameron has already intervened in the election once – attempting to convince former Yorkshire and England cricket legend Darren Gough to stand for the party.

Mr Gough turned down that approach because he was too busy with his other commitments but he has promised to campaign for the Tory candidate James Hockney.

The Tories came third in the seat at the General Election last year and Labour will be confident of holding onto the seat, which Illsley won with a majority of more than 11,000 last year.

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Prime Ministers have often avoided campaigning in by-elections, which are sometimes used by voters to punish governing parties.

A Tory source said: “We’ll be putting every possible effort into the by-election.”