Independent on Blackburn vote rigging

In the Lancashire constituency of Blackburn, where the Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw, is defending his 9,249 majority, the vote-rigging allegations have intensified as polling day nears.

"I've come from Uzbekistan to Blackburnistan," says Craig Murray, Britain's former ambassador to the central Asian republic who is campaigning to unseat the Foreign Secretary. He left the Foreign Office after speaking out against the Government's use of intelligence obtained by torture. approved by Jack Straw.

"This is very much a Labour rotten borough," he said. "There is a nexus of the police, the authorities and business - if we were in the Soviet Union, you would say mafia."(If you were in Blackburn you would say Mafia as well)

Craig in his election address posted to each named voter in Blackburn quotes the evidence of Independent coumnist Yasmin Alibhai Brown to a Commons committee where she fingers Lord Patel as the "fixer". So far no response. Contact us by e-mail for a copy of her evidence.