Let's Play This Election The Rugby & Kenilworth Way
April 22, 2005 9:29 AM
Richard Allanach, the Liberal Democrat candidate for Rugby and Kenilworth, has condemned the manner of Michael Howard's interference in the local election campaign.
Mr Allanach said:
"The local Conservative candidate and myself have been conducting this election in a civilised fashion. Local residents have been telling me they prefer this approach to the national ding-dong seen on television. Now Michael Howard has been trying to poison local elector's minds with false ideas.
In letters to target voters and in newspaper advertisements Mr Howard has linked expenditure on asylum in Warwickshire of some £800,000 per annum with the rise in Council Tax Bills. Michael Howard is clearly trying to channel people's dislike of the Council Tax system into dislike of refugees.
Mr Howard should check his facts before he starts his smear campaigns," said Mr Allanach. "Firstly, unlike the national party his local Conservative candidate is standing by our international treaty obligations to refugees. Secondly, there is no direct link whatsoever between Council Tax bills and the expenditure to which Mr Howard refers."
Rugby councillor Chris Holman has checked out the Tory advert with county council officers. The expenditure it refers to is funded by a specific government grant to Warwickshire, and could not be used to reduce the rise in Council Tax bills.
"Only in the most theoretical sense are the two matters in any way linked. It is like saying that had Mr Howard not unlawfully dismissed Derek Lewis, the Head of the Prison Service, in 1995 the hundreds of thousands spent on compensating Mr Lewis could have been used to reduce the Council Tax rate in Rugby or Kenilworth," said Mr Allanach.
Mr Allanach has written to Mr Wright to find out whether he was consulted about or approved Mr Howard's intervention in the local campaign.
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