I find it somewhat sad that after nearly a third of a century of being the Member of Parliament for Banbury the worst the Banbury Labour Party can do to criticise me is to attack the school I went to.

I am proud to have gone to a Quaker school.

It was the school also attended by former Labour Party leader Michael Foot.

Just as my mother was proud to go to Sibford School, another Quaker school just outside Banbury.

On the NHS, it is perhaps worth reminding the Banbury Labour Party that the comprehensive threat to services at the Horton General Hospital occurred during the time of the last Labour Government where the present shadow-Secretary of State for Health Andy Burnham was the then Secretary of State for Health. If it had been left to the Labour Government and the Labour Party we would now have no children’s services whatsoever at the Horton and a midwife-only maternity unit.

On the spare room subsidy, the Labour Party introduced almost exactly the same provisions for those living in the private-rented sector. Large numbers of hardworking families in my constituency live in the private-rented sector and the Labour Party have to explain why it is that they think that tenants living in social housing should be treated differently from tenants living in the private-rented sector.

Also, given that the Labour Party joined with Conservatives and Liberals in the division lobby to vote for a welfare cap, if they are going to spend a lot more money on housing benefit, they have to explain where this money is going to be found elsewhere in the welfare budget.

The Labour Party are very good at telling us all where they are going to spend more but not where they are going to make the consequent savings.

Similarly, the Labour Party locally likes to give the impression that they would spend a lot more money on the county council.

The only problem with that is that at Westminster Labour Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls MP appears to have signed up to supporting the present Chancellor’s spending plans way into the next Parliament. It is simply not responsible for the Labour Party to be saying one thing at Westminster and another thing locally.

Rt Hon Sir Tony Baldry MP House of Commons London

Today’s letters


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