THE political parties who lost out to Gillingham's Labour MP Paul Clark in the general election in June have called for a by-election after his expenses overspend. Mr Clark and his agent Linda Miller have admitted to overspending their election allowance by £818 and will appear in High Court on November 27 to ask to be excused the error.

Medway Council's acting returning officer, Judith Armitt, has admitted Mr Clark was sent the incorrect expenses error in May. But the Liberal Democrats have claimed the overspend gave the Labour party an unfair advantage in producing leaflets, a video and even goody-bags to give away to potential voters.

Group leader Cllr Geoff Juby said: "Labour has failed the people of Gillingham badly, and if we get the chance to fight a by-election we will welcome it. The real issue of how the health service has been under invested in Medway for the past ten years was totally lost in the pre-election hype of pop idol visits and issuing, videos, Mars bars and balloons."

Nikki Sinclair, of the UK Independence party, said: "Despite being a small party we had to fight that campaign on an unequal footing. It's not democracy if there are limits on how much you can spend and someone does not to stick to them. We will be trying to push for a by-election."

The Conservative Party, whose candidate Tim Butcher was Mr Clark's closest rival in the election, are following developments closely.

Chairman Paul Foster said: "We will wait for Mr Clark's affidavit to be delivered to Tim Butcher and make a full comment at the appropriate time."