Walsall North veteran MP: Don't settle for a coalition
One of Labour's longest serving MPs has pleaded with his party not to settle for coalition with the Liberal Democrats, following a Tory lead in the opinion polls.
David Winnick said the party should be focussed on winning an outright majority at the next election.
The 81-year-old - who is standing for another five-year term next May - first became an MP in 1966, representing Croydon South. He has represented Walsall North consistently since 1979.
But he spoke out after former deputy prime minister John Prescott criticised the party's performance at its annual conference, where the atmosphere was described as 'flat'.
"We need to win as broad a support as possible and not work for a coalition," Mr Winnick said.
"I have thought from the start we have to work all out for a working majority and any question of coalition with the Liberal Democrats or anyone else does not arise now.
"It's completely wrong to consider it when we have such a goal.
"What the electorate wants on May 7 next year we will see then.
"But there are seven months until the election. Talk now of coalition from Labour's ranks is futile."
Mr Winnick's comments come as Labour came within a few hundred votes of losing a seat in Greater Manchester to UKIP.
UKIP also won a seat in Clacton after the Tory MP Douglas Carswell defected and sought re-election with his new party.
Meanwhile UKIP is now claiming to be the 'only way to defeat the Labour party' in the Black Country after a by-election victory saw it gain an MP in Westminster.
Bill Etheridge, MEP for the West Midlands, said the party's by-election win in Clacton, coupled with running Labour a close second in Heywood and Middleton, was a historic moment.
He said: "With regard to many seats in the West Midlands and particularly my own target of Dudley North the only way to defeat the Labour Party and keep Ed Miliband out of Downing Street is to vote UKIP."
Tory defector Douglas Carswell cruised to victory in Clacton, where he had stood down as MP to fight the seat as a UKIP candidate.
It is the first time since 1973 that an MP defecting to another party has won a bid for re-election.
Paul Uppal, Tory MP for Wolverhampton South West, said: "When you're in government and making difficult decisions, you expect some by-election defeats.
"The real story was Heywood and Middleton because of how close UKIP came to Labour.
"What people who are voting UKIP have to ask themselves is, do they want Ed Miliband in Number 10? Because that is what voting for UKIP instead of the Conservatives will mean."