Respect leader on course to win election as MP

The party leader, Salma Yaqoob, who finished second in Birmingham Sparkbrook in 2005, is standing in the neighbouring Hall Green seat where Labour's Roger Godsiff is defending a notional majority of 4,191. Yaqoob is popular in the area, a third of which is Muslim, and she has been helped by the local Green Party's decision to stand aside and endorse Respect. http://www.newstatesman.com/