Sir Peter Soulsby and Keith Vaz

It can be difficult for the outsider to work out what is going on inside Leicester Labour Party. But a Leicester Mercury article looking at the declaration of expenses for the city recent Mayoral contest gives a valuable clue:

The documents also revealed the donors to each candidate's campaign.

Sir Peter's was funded by the three city constituency Labour parties. Leicester South and West branches gave £3,100 and £2,100 respectively. Leicester East's branch gave just £80.

I think we can safely conclude that Sir Peter and Keith Vaz (Labour MP for Leicester East) are not exactly bosom buddies.

The return of expenses also reveals that the UKIP candidate spent nothing on her campaign beyond the £500 deposit.

If you do want to try to make sense of Leicester politics, I recommend the blog written by the Mercury's political correspondent David MacLean.