 | 'I do not accept the need for the Labour administration to work with the fourth largest party in the assembly.' Welsh education minister Tom Middlehurst AM resigns in protest of the Welsh Lab-Lab pact, 10 th October 2000. |  |
| 'I do not accept the need for the Labour administration to work with the fourth largest party in the assembly.' Welsh education minister Tom Middlehurst AM resigns in protest of the Welsh Lab-Lab pact, 10 th October 2000. | |
Three contests, at Preston, West Bromwich West and Glasgow Anniesland are likely to pose the widest electoral test of Tony Blair's government before the next general election.
The by-elections will also offer an indication of how successful Chancellor Gordon Brown was in placating pensioners and fuel protesters in his pre-Budget report.
All three seats are traditional Labour strongholds.
West Bromwich West is up for grabs following the retirement of Betty Boothroyd as Speaker of the House of Commons.
The by-election will be the first time the seat has seen a genuine contest since 1992, when Miss Boothroyd took 55% of the vote, with a majority of 7,830.
She was virtually unopposed at the 1997 election, as is the tradition with the speaker's seat.
West Bromwich West has seen two weeks of intensive campaigning, with the Conservative Party wheeling out big guns William Hague and Michael Portillo in support of its candidate, legal executive Karen Bissell.
Gordon Brown put in an appearance in support Labour's candidate, Adrian Bailey, deputy leader of the local Sandwell Council.
The Liberal Democrats' candidate, Sadie Smith, who leads the opposition on Sandwell Council, also received front bench support.
The other candidates are Jon Oakton (UK Independence Party) and Nicholas Griffin (British National Party).
Anniesland doubleheader
The death of Scotland's first minister Donald Dewar in October, left vacancies for both his Westminster and Scottish parliament seats.
Mr Dewar secured a 15,154 majority for Labour at the last general election with 62% of the vote.
Then in 1999, at the first election to the new Scottish Parliament, he also became the constituency MSP with a majority of 10,993.
John Robertson, chief of the local Anniesland Labour Party, is hoping to succeed Mr Dewar at Westminster.
He faces competition from the SNP's Grant Thoms, a community worker from Glasgow. Like Mr Robertson, Mr Thoms had already been chosen to contest the seat at the next general election.
The other candidates are Dorothy Luckhurst (Conservative), William Lyden (Family Action Movement), Charlie McCarthy (Scottish Socialist Party) and Christopher McGinty (Liberal Democrat).
In the Scottish parliament contest, Labour is fielding Glasgow city councillor Bill Butler, the husband of Glasgow Maryhill MSP Patricia Ferguson.
The SNP's candidate, Anniesland solicitor Tom Chalmers, is a member of the party's national executive committee.
The other candidates are Judith Fryer (Liberal Democrat), Rosie Kane (Scottish Socialist Party), Dr Kate Pickering (Conservative), Murdo Ritchie (Socialist Labour Party) and Alastair Whitelaw (Green).
Preston poll
Veteran Labour MP Audrey Wise held Preston with an 18,680 majority in 1997, snatching 61% of the vote.
Mark Hendrick, a former MEP for the area, won the Labour nomination, following Mrs Wise's death in September.
The Conservatives, who were runners-up in 1997, are pinning their hopes on local candidate Graham O'Hare.
The Liberal Democrats, who took 14% of the vote in the last general election, are fielding a local councillor, Bill Chadwick.
The full list of other candidates is: Gregory Beaman (UK Independence Party), Terence Cartwright (Lancashire Socialist Alliance), David Franklin-Braid (Battle of Britain Christian Alliance Party), Peter Garrett (Preston Alliance - Christian Peoples Alliance), Christian Jackson (British National Party), Richard Merrick (Green Party).
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