19/03/2010

Robin Walker, Parliamentary Candidate for Worcester has responded to calls from Worcester's current MP for an apology and a retraction over a local Conservative in touch that has been distributed in the Cathedral Ward of Worcester.

A story on the back of the leaflet covered concerns about the threat to the county's stroke rehabilitation facility, the Brain Injury Centre at South Worcestershire FE College in Evesham, and Robin was quoted on it saying "If the government thought it cannot afford this vital support service then our economy must be in a bad way. Labour have sneaked out figures that they will cut public spending by 10%. The stroke centre cut shows Labour don't know how to run government efficiently so we can afford to help people who need it."

The MP called for Robin to apologise for breaking his own clean campaign pledge by "scaremongering and telling lies". Robin today said,

"The simple truth is that the Brain Injury Centre remains under serious threat from cuts to the education grants that support it and from the lower priority being given in government policy to adult educational facilities like this one. That is why Peter Luff MP, the MP for Evesham, is receiving a petition from staff and supporters of the unit today. Nearly a month ago, he raised the issue with the Minister for Further Education and with the Learning and Skills Council, the government body that provides the funding for the centre and he tells me there is a huge groundswell of concern about the centre's future for precisely the reason given in that leaflet."

"I am proud of my clean campaign pledge and have no intention of going back on it. Every piece of Conservative literature that has gone out in Worcester is accurate and has something positive to say about what we are doing locally and what a Conservative government would do. For an MP who has refused to sign this cross party pledge to try to use it against us is disappointing in the extreme. Constituents should be concerned that he appears not to understand the issue and has written to the wrong body about it - the Primary Care Trust and not the Learning and Skills Council."

"Every Labour leaflet I have seen in Worcester over the last few months has been negative and some have included straightforward lies, such as the allegation that we would cut services to get rid of the 50 per cent top rate of tax, this has never been our policy. It was put out on a blue leaflet, purporting to be a "Tory tax calculator" but was in fact published by the Labour party.  Perhaps instead of shows of mock indignation against accurate information, Mike should be re-thinking this negative campaign."

"It's not too late for Labour to choose a candidate who will fight cleanly and sign our cross party pledge on transparency in expenses. I would politely recommend that they do so as nobody in Worcester wants a campaign dominated by name-calling and insults."