Reading Liberal Democrats

Liberal Democrat Parliamentary candidate Cllr Gareth Epps has launched the General Election campaign in Reading East with a direct challenge to his Conservative opponent to face the electorate at forthcoming public meetings in Reading.

The Reading East constituency is likely to be a close contest between the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats. At the last election, the Liberal Democrats reduced the gap to fewer than 5,000 votes, after a 5.7% swing in their favour. At this election, Gareth Epps needs a 5.7% swing to beat the Conservatives and win. The seat includes a large student population, with most University of Reading students living in Reading East alongside students from Thames Valley University’s Reading campus. The Lib Dems are set to profit from their policy of scrapping tuition fees – a policy Gareth Epps helped to engineer back in 1997. The Conservative candidate has refused to sign a National Union of Students (NUS) petition committing candidates to oppose further increases in tuition fees.

The Labour Party has continued to decline in Reading East after its vote fell by over 10 per cent in 2005. From having 16 councillors in the constituency in 2005, it has lost seats in Caversham, Church, Park, Redlands and Katesgrove wards – the latter to the Liberal Democrats, who now have 11 councillors to Labour’s 5.

The Conservative candidate for Reading East has refused to attend a hustings being organised by Reading environmental groups under the banner of GREN (Greater Reading Environment Network) on 13 April, and a student hustings organised by Reading University Students’ Union on 26 April. In both cases the Conservatives are sending a councillor as a substitute. Gareth Epps has written to Rob Wilson to ask why he refused to attend the GREN meeting, despite being offered a date of his choice on which the meeting could be arranged.

Gareth Epps has also revealed he is to launch a contract with the electorate, to demonstrate how Members of Parliament should form a bond of trust with the people electing them after the scandals of recent years.

The General Election comes at a good time for the Liberal Democrats. They are up 4% in the most recent ICM polls for the Guardian from 19% to 21% and 23%. And the Lib Dems’ Vince Cable is widely seen has having won the “Ask the Chancellors” debate on Channel 4 last week. The Independent newspaper gave Vince Cable 4 stars, the Conservatives’ George Osborne, 1 star.

Commenting on the doorstep reception in recent days, Gareth Epps says:-
‘Knocking on doors in recent days, I have found huge disillusionment with both Conservative and Labour. After 65 years of failure, we are dubbing them the “Labservatives” – each as bad as the other. People want to see a stronger Lib Dem presence in Parliament.

‘The days where Labour dominated politics in this area are now long gone, with them reduced to activity in a handful of wards in Reading East. Commentators and local residents are acknowledging the Reading East election this time will be a fight between the Liberal Democrats and Conservatives. Many Lib Dems who were helping in other constituencies last time will be spending more time in Reading East now we can win.

‘I will be campaigning at this election for a fair deal for local people. Fairness in taxation – a £700 tax cut for the average earner. Fairness for schools – millions of pounds extra for local schools’ through the Lib Dems’ pupil premium, to tackle the gaping divide in educational chances between children from the wealthiest and worst-off backgrounds. Fairness in jobs – a “green road” out of the recession through investing in renewable energy. And fair and accountable politics. All MPs share some responsibility for the problems that grew up over expenses; we must now reform the political system to restore trust as a whole.

‘This is the best chance for 100 years for us to elect a Liberal Democrat in Reading East. We start fewer than 5,000 votes away with the Labour Party continuing its rapid decline. We go into this election with very great confidence.’

Commenting on his challenge to the Conservative candidate, Gareth said:-
‘It is simply not good enough for a candidate who wants to be re-elected as our local MP to hide behind his councillors on some of the biggest issues facing us all. People do not want to know the views of a councillor on whether he or she believes in man-made climate change. They want to know what their prospective Member of Parliament thinks.

‘Rob Wilson was offered a date of his choice for this meeting. A similar event in Reading West was well-attended. To refuse to attend in the manner he has done demonstrates contempt for the electorate – or begs the question, what do the Conservatives have to hide?’

The Liberal Democrat agent has written to the Labour Party accusing it of libelling his candidate in Reading West.

Councillor Warren Swaine, who is acting as agent for Cllr Daisy Benson standing in the General Election in the constituency, has written to his opposite number in the Labour Party Robert Owen making the complaint.

He accused the party of spreading “negative comments and smears”.

His complaint is based on an article in the Labour Party’s Reading and Woodley Banner under the headline ‘Liberals “too busy” to care’.

Although the article does not refer to Cllr Benson by name it is clearly about her.

It said: “Having failed to deliver an important scrutiny report on children’s health in Reading she failed to turn up at the meeting due to discuss it.”

It goes on: “What kind of MP is she likely to be if she is already ‘too busy’ to do her job as a councillor?”

Cllr Swaine, referring to a report on the subject in the Reading Post, said in his letter: “In this case the Reading Post was quite clear in its reporting. ‘Cllr Benson is not a member and was not present at Tuesday night’s meeting’.

“By making the statement: ‘She failed to turn up at the meeting due to discuss the report’ you have clearly sought to libel my candidate in the eyes of the electorate by implying that she was expected to attend the children’s panel which as the Post correctly reported, she is not a member.”

He calls on the Labour Party to withdraw both the Reading West and Reading East Banners from circulation with immediate effect.

He added: “Failure to do so will be taken as a sign that you are continuing to disseminate the libel.”

Cllr Pete Ruhemann, responding on behalf of the Labour Party, said: “The scrutiny report on children’s health was on the agenda of the education and children’s health scrutiny panel in February and there should have been joint recommendations from the two chairs for forwarding to cabinet.

“It would have been all right for Cllr Benson not to be at that meeting had she and Cllr Ralph had the time to get together to draw up joint recommendations to their two panels, but in fact that has still not been done six weeks later.

“We regard the article in the Reading Banner as fair comment.

“The Lib Dems are very ready to attack other parties, it is sad that they can’t take it.”

Reading West Tory candidate Alok Sharma said: “I believe it is incredibly important, especially at a time when politicians generally are held in such low regard by the general public, that we demonstrate by our actions that politics need not be a dirty game.

“Nasty, negative campaigning turns off voters and I hope that going forward in this campaign candidates will refrain from making personal attacks against, or misleading statements about, other candidates in written literature or verbally.”

Original story from getreading