30/04/2014 East Midlands Today

Halal And now the news for the East Midlands, I'm Dominic Heale. Good

evening. The East Midlands is set for a major political battle this

summer with a parliamentary by` election in the Nottinghamshire

constituency of Newark. It follows the resignation of the local MP,

Patrick Mercer, who's admitted taking cash for questions. It had

been thought the UKIP leader Nigel Farage would stand, but he has

decided not to. So, what does it all mean for the constituency? Our

reporter Quentin Rayner has been finding out.

Nigel Farage's opponents accuse him of throwing in the towel by not

standing. But it will be tough for UKIP to win in Newark. To overturn

the Tories's majority, UKIP needs a swing away from the Conservatives of

25%, the highest they have ever achieved in a by`election is 19%.

UKIP certainly has support here. We wanted him here. Everybody in this

town I know would have voted for UKIP. I will vote for UKIP because

of immigration in this town. We are overrun. His popularity is really

good throughout the country. I am sort of attractive to some of the

stuff he says and repelled by some of the other stuff. The overwhelming

thinking of a lot of people in England are against massive

immigration we have had. That is what has killed it. How much of a

political Gromit will be by`election be? I think it will be important. ``

political barometer. It could let Labour in via the middle. There

could be pressure on David Cameron to move further to be Eurosceptic

position. The market is always a busy place but the politicians will

also be setting out their stall over the next few weeks.

Well, that's the view in Newark. But what's the thinking in Westminster?

Earlier I spoke to our political editor John Hess who told us the

latest. The date of the Newark by`election is unclear this evening.

Patrick Mercer had been appointed whereby a city MP can stand out and

it clears the way for the parliamentary by`election. My guess

it will be held towards the end of June on a Thursday, possibly before

Parliament rises for the summer break. One candidate who will not be

standing now is the leader of UKIP Nigel Farage. 24 hours ago, he was

hinting he would be interested. But today he snubbed out the speculation

by saying he did not know the East Midlands well enough to consider

standing. It prompted Ken Clarke to way and by saying Nigel Farage would

be committing political suicide by standing because the voters of

Newark would have given Nigel Farage a bad thrashing at the polls. The

irony is that tomorrow the Commons standards committee will publish its

report on conclusions into the cash for questions allegations against

Patrick Mercer. In other news tonight, halal meat

has been taken off the menu at all of Leicester's schools after another

food scare. Tests showed a halal lamb kebab contained more than 50%

beef. Last year it was discovered halal lamb burgers contained pork

DNA. Mike O'Sullivan reports. Dinner time at this primary School

in Leicester. Now halal meat is off the menu at all schools in the city.

Tests carried out by the council showed how else Lamb kebabs were

found to contain more than 50% beef `` halal meat Lamb kebabs. I have

lost my trust. It would be disappointing if they do not bring

it back in the near future. If they can bring it back, it would be

better. This is one of nine schools known to have served up the suspect

kebabs. The city council has withdrawn halal meat from the menu

at every city school. It is very concerning and it is equally

disappointed. This is the second incident that has occurred with

halal meat meals in Leicester City schools in the past year. Punjab

kitchen, the company supplying the product to be schools and

Leicester, is based in South Shields. They say they are entirely

innocent as they did not manufacture the kebabs. They have contacted

their own supplier who in turn is said to be working with trading

standards officers in Yorkshire. In this case, I know there is a dispute

about what should be in a kebabs, whether it should be Lamb or B. If

it was labelled as Lamb and it was not, that is very serious. `` beef.

The council says further investigation is needed.

A telephone helpline has been inundated with calls after fears

that hundreds of students may have been contaminated with infected

blood. It follows the discovery that a worker at a university health

clinic was re`using syringe barrels for taking blood tests and

vaccinations. More than 600 students at the University of Derby may have

been infected with diseases such as HIV and hepatitis.

Prosecutors are considering evidence against a former Leicester MP as

part of an inquiry into historic child abuse. Lord Janner hasn't been

arrested, but officers from Leicestershire Police are taking

advice from the Crown Prosecution Service on moving the investigation

forward. Officers raided the peer's London home four months ago.

Greville Janner was a Labour MP for 27 years in Leicester North West and

then Leicester West. That's your news, so it's goodbye from me. But

with your weather, here's Anna Church.

You would have had to have been very unlucky to be caught out in the

showers this evening. The Shari theme continues tomorrow. At the

moment, we have clear skies around. There may be missed particularly

across the Peak District. Largely dry for most of the night. `` there

may be mist. It is mild. A cloudy and damp start with the light patchy

rain at times in the morning. A good deal of dry weather before we start

to see the showers becoming more widespread in the afternoon. There

may be a few particularly intense showers towards the end of the

afternoon. Bright and sunny intervals. Feeling pleasant in the

sunshine. I will leave you now with your outlook for the next few days.

Followed by the National forecast. as well. The outlook, it shows you

it will get cooler as we had through the weekend but brighter, although

gardeners beware, night-time frosts. It was a day of contrasts across the

UK today, rain coming in from the West but in the south-east, like

winds and sunshine, up to 20 degrees. Contrast that with six

degrees in the East of Scotland. In between we've seen some

thunderstorms and more general showers coming in to the western

side of the UK. Northern Ireland, Wales and the south-west. The best

chance of staying dry is across Lincolnshire and East Anglia. A lot

of cloud around generally overnight, some patches of mist and

maybe a few patches of fog as well. The lowest