had supported the closure of a local school, and for the use of two Olympic sailors in campaign literature without the permission of the sailors (both of whom support Labour). Closure of MG Rover plant in Longbridge On 7 April the car company MG Rover halted production at its plant in Longbridge, Birmingham, due to financial problems and the company was put into administration. The government attempted to broker a deal with Chinese firm Shanghai Automotive to continue the firms' strategic alliance and buy Rover out. However, talks were unsuccessful and on 12 April the administrators, Price Waterhouse Coopers, announced that production would be wound up, the plant and its assets sold and almost all of the plant's staff made redundant. Around 5,000 jobs will be lost at Longbridge, and many more jobs in local companies and dealerships throughout the UK that had supplied the firm are at risk. Many of Birmingham's seats are currently Labour-held, but also quite marginal. Birth of Charles Kennedy's son The leader of the Liberal Democrats, Charles Kennedy, became a father on 12 April. The Liberal Democrat manifesto launch was delayed when Kennedy's wife, Sarah, went into hospital on 11 April. The deputy leader of the Liberal Democrats, Sir Menzies Campbell, took over Kennedy's campaign role in the meantime. Party defections Paul Marsden, the outgoing MP for Shrewsbury and Atcham, announced within hours of the dissolution of Parliament that he was seeking to rejoin the Labour Party and reverse his earlier defection from Labour to the Liberal Democrats in protest at the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan. Meanwhile, Labour's Brian Sedgemore (Hackney South and Shoreditch), another MP stepping down at the election and a long-time critic of Tony Blair, left the party for the Liberal Democrats on 25 April in protest at Labour's policies on Iraq, anti-terrorism laws and top-up fees. Publication of Attorney General's Advice on Iraq War After the summary of the document was comprehensively leaked to Channel 4 News and The Guardian, the Attorney General Lord Goldsmith's advice of 7 March 2003, on the legality of the 2003 invasion of Iraq was published in full. Opponents of the war had campaigned for the advice to be made public for some time, with many speculating that the government's reluctance to do so indicated that Goldsmith had advised that war would be illegal. The real situation was complicated. Lord Goldsmith had concluded that "the safest