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Ben slams Chris Mole over his inaction on Boundary Committee review

“Where is Chris Mole in all this?  Nowhere.  He won’t speak up for local council tax payers, he doesn’t care about council workers whose time has been wasted and whose jobs are now uncertain for another six months, and he has put his own political interests before the Town’s future.”

Ben Gummer, the Conservative Parliamentary Candidate for Ipswich, has today hit out at Ipswich’s Labour Member of Parliament, Chris Mole, for his part in the confusion surrounding the future of local government in Suffolk.

The Boundary Committee was due to present its final recommendation this week but will now not report to the Secretary of State until July. The earliest date new unitary authorities could be operational is now thought to be April 2011.

Ben said: “Politics should be about policy and not personalities.  But when an MP let’s his constituents down, it would be wrong for his opponents to let that pass.

“At the beginning, Chris Mole was happy to be photographed supporting the cross-party bid for a unitary Ipswich – agreeing with Liz Harsant that an independent Ipswich would have a stronger and truer voice.  Yet when the Boundary Committee reported, he soon caved into his local party, who feared losing seats.  Mr Mole sold Ipswich people down for his own narrow party advantage.  More that that, he has shown that he has neither the influence nor the will to fight for Ipswich people in Westminster.

“This local government re-organization has been a disaster: it has cost Suffolk people  millions of pounds, wasted thousands of hours of council time, and has caused considerable acrimony.  The decision to delay the outcome, yet again, leaves our councils in an impossible situation: how are they supposed to plan for the future when they don’t know what that future will be?  Worse still, how much more of our money will be wasted while this review stumbles on?

“And where is Chris Mole in all this?  Nowhere.  He won’t speak up for local council tax payers, he doesn’t care about council workers whose time has been wasted and whose jobs are now uncertain for another six months, and he has put his own political interests before the Town’s future.
 
“Ipswich people have traditionally voted for strong-minded MPs, people who will fight for them on important issues, even if that means speaking out against their own party.  People deserve such an MP now more than ever.  Mr Mole has shown, once again, that he is not that man.”
 

11th February 2009