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Iain Wright and wife Tiffany celebrate victory at the Hartlepool by-election, but can the MP also deliver a Labour win in Oldham?

It might be taking place on the other side of the Pennines, but the North East is playing its part in this week's Oldham East and Saddleworth by-election.

Several MPs from this region spent some of last week on the campaign trail there ranging from Sedgefield's Phil Wilson and Wearside's Bridget Phillipson for Labour, to Hexham Conservative Guy Opperman.

But one of our MPs has spent weeks there.

is acting as Labour's Campaign Manager for Thursday's poll.

The MP sounds like a natural choice for what's a crucial contest for the party.

in a similarly bruising and high profile by-election. That was caused by the departure of sitting MP Peter Mandelson to Brussels; this time it's another high-profile departure - the ejection of former minister Phil Woolas that has caused the contest.

There are strong similarities between Hartlepool and this week's contest. Iain Wright also had to fight a strong Lib Dem challenge, and cope with a media circus.

I well remember some surreal moments in Hartlepool town centre, where TV crews would be jostling cheek by jowl with one of the long string of candidates contesting the seat.

It won't harm his career any then if he can use that experience to help Labour hang onto the seat.

In Hartlepool, the party went strongly for the Lib Dem candidate and effectively ignored the Tory.

Labour aimed to portray the Lib Dems as soft on crime - an issue they believed was crucial for working class voters in Hartlepool.

Nick Clegg's party faces a fierce contest as he campaigns in the Oldham East and Saddleworth by-election.

This time, of course, they have been focusing on the Lib Dem support for cuts.

And although Iain Wright isn't from Lancashire, I'd guess the concerns of the community in Oldham East are not dissimilar to the kind of issues he has encountered in Hartlepool.

But there's another complication in Oldham East and Saddleworth.

While the Conservatives looked no-hopers from the start in Hartlepool (they eventually finished fourth behind UKIP), they started within touching distance of Labour and the Lib Dems in this contest.

Of course, there have been doubts about how rigorous a campaign the Tories have been fighting against their coalition partners.

A poor result this time may lead to some unhappiness in the party at letting the Lib Dems have a clear run as Labour's main opponents, but Tory support is still likely to hold up better than it did in Hartlepool.

that Iain Wright will help to deliver a comfortable win for Labour, but you don't need to be a politician to know that there's only one poll that counts.

The full list of candidates (in alphabetical order) is: Debbie Abrahams (Labour), Derek Adams (British National Party), Kashif Ali (Conservative), Peter Allen (Green Party), David Bishop (Bus-Pass Elvis Party), The Flying Brick (Monster Raving Loony Party), Loz Kaye (Pirate Party of the United Kingdom), Stephen Morris (English Democrats), Paul Nuttall MEP (UK Independence Party), Elwyn Watkins (Liberal Democrats).

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