LABOUR's deputy Leader Harriet Harman braved the mean streets of Millwall in London's East End without a 'stab' vest on Monday, trying to rally support for forthcoming City Hall elections and a local by-election

By Ted Jeory and Julia Gregory

LABOUR'S deputy Leader Harriet Harman braved the mean streets of Millwall in London's East End without a 'stab' vest on Monday, trying to rally support for forthcoming City Hall elections and a local by-election.

The gaffe-prone Government Cabinet minister spiced things up at the Clifton curry restaurant on the Isle of Dogs, where voters go to the polls on May 1 for the Mayor of London and the London Assembly, as well as a Tower Hamlets council by-election.

The resignation of former Tower Hamlets Tory Opposition leader Simon Rouse last month has thrown the Millwall seat up for grabs.

The Conservatives are favourites to win at Millwall, fielding economist David Snowdon, a former Cambridge University Conservative Association chairman, now currently campaigning to save the Barkantine post office on the Isle of Dogs.

The five other parties battling for Millwall include the right-wing BNP, which notoriously held a seat in the ward after Derek Beackon's by-election victory in 1993. They are fielding English teacher Jeffrey Marshall, from Whitechapel, this time round.

Harriet Harman's visit on Monday was aimed at drumming up support for Labour's Doros Ullah, former Tower Hamlets mayor who lost his Whitechapel seat on the local authority in 2006.

The Respect (George Galloway) candidate is Reza Mahbob, while the Left List formed after a split with George Galloway is fielding Rebecca Townesend, a 27-year-old activist from Mile End who also works with unemployed teenagers in south London.

Restaurant manager and part-time journalist Mohammed Uddin, from Bethnal Green, is the Liberal Democrats' man.

ted.jeory@archant.co.uk