I find that my 10.00 am meeting has been cancelled and so instead of going to City Hall, I carry straight on to Leicester to help in the by-election.

I am sat stuffing envelopes in an upstairs area near to our by-election guru’s office, Chris Rennard. As he spies me he asks if I will speak to a Muslim caller from the Muslim Council of Great Britain who is concerned about a motion going to the GLA the next day. I also have to speak to another representative of that organisation following a message from my office.  The hoo-ha is over a motion put by the Greens condemning the Mayor for receiving the Prof Al-Qaradawi at City Hall etc.  We (LibDems) have put down an amendment to the motion to basically say that The Assembly should be a forum for robust debate and we condemn all acts of violence, including suicide bombing, homophobia, Islamaphobia and domestic violence. The Muslim Council want us to withdraw our amendment and simply vote against the motion. They phone a number of times during the day and apply pressure. Totally resisted by myself. I am sure that our amendment is true to ourselves – and stick to my guns. See MQT for what happened next.

Finish stuffing envelopes around 4pm and wend way back to London on Midland Mainline – pretty punctual and pleasant I thought.