Healey used visit to score 'Labour hits'
John Healey used a visit to a controversial Conservative-run London borough to score political points, a note written by the housing minister suggests.
The document, in which Mr Healey writes that the visit to Hammersmith & Fulham at the beginning of the year enabled some ‘good Labour hits’, has been intercepted by shadow housing minister Grant Shapps.
It was intended for Stephen Cowan, Labour Group leader of Hammersmith & Fulham, is dated 4 February 2009, and handwritten on House of Commons notepaper.
Mr Healey has used Hammersmith & Fulham as an example of the housing policies the Conservatives would introduce if they win the general election.
The council leader, Stephen Greenhalgh, has advocated raising social rents to near market levels, and giving councils and housing associations complete control over the conditions of the tenancies they offer.
In his speech to the Labour Party conference earlier this month, Mr Healey described the borough as ‘a laboratory for future Tory Policy’.
In the note, Mr Healey wrote that the visit was ‘tricky’, but implies that it was worth it because of the benefit it would bring to his party.
Mr Shapps described the leaked note as ‘embarrassing’ for Mr Healey.
He said the visit to Hammersmith & Fulham was an attempt to ‘divert attention’ from the Labour Party’s ‘pathetic housing record’, and Mr Healey was using ‘scare tactics in order to frighten social tenants’.
Mr Healey responded by saying: ‘I like visiting Hammersmith & Fulham. For a Labour politician, it’s like shooting fish in a barrel.’
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Readers' comments (9)
Dave Hollins | 22/10/2009 2:56 pm
The embarramsment is all for Grant Shapps. He really must decide whether he is backing Hammersmith policies or not. He is either in favour of market rents, ending security of tenure, and redeveloping council estates to bring in more middle income people (possibly even Tory voters) - the policies advocated by Council Leader Greenhalgh - or he is not. He can't keep pretending Hammersmith is Cameron's favourite council and backing away from their policies. George Osborne recently praised Hammersmith yet again. So when will we get an answer? Perhaps IH should stop reporting rubbish like this and get onto the real stories. Greenhalgh is either a serious Tory representative advocating their real policies or a loud mouthed buffoon. Shapps should tell us which it is.
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Sancho | 22/10/2009 4:10 pm
What I think is very bad is that someone is making up stupid names and pretending to be an ethnic minority resident of Hammersmith and Fulham. There is a lot of arguing goes on here between different points on the political spectrum, but making up names, writing in broken English and acting all innocent to push a political agenda is really not on. It's disingenuous at best, probably racist.
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Melvin Bone | 22/10/2009 4:51 pm
You should ignore the Trolls, or at least not feed them too much.
I'm not sure Dave Hollins is a made up name though.
It is daft that a Minister would visit an area to 'score points' rather than have a real purpose though.
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B.S. Townroe | 22/10/2009 5:52 pm
Congratulations 'Mr Hate-Everybody' on your partially remembered CSE French. Perhaps you can partially explain why the policies so ably outlined by Dave Hollins will help 'you'.
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Alan Savage | 22/10/2009 6:20 pm
And Grant Shapps isn't trying to score political points I suppose :)
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Dave Hollins | 22/10/2009 7:42 pm
Sancho is spot on. I think the previous 2 comments were made up and are racist in intent. They remind me of the antics of well known Tory bloggers with a W6 postcode, pretend toffs who think they're so clever. Isn't it enough that the BNP is feted on Question Time this evening without having to put up with this?
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Steve | 23/10/2009 9:43 am
I seem to remember, as sadly I am old enough, that 'benefits - crime - unemployment etc' was an 18 year long Tory policy. I don't see anything wrong in researching what opponents are up to, particularly when those policies bear a passing resemblance to the Westminster gerrymandering housing policy of the 1980s, with the culprit living outside the UK in a country where there is no extradition treaty with the UK. For want of any national housing policy from the Tories, what else can be done other than see what they are up to when governing locally?
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Dave Hollins | 23/10/2009 2:09 pm
I'm glad you removed the 2 comments from people pretending to be from ethnic minorities supporting the Tories in Hammersmith. But you don't identify that they've been removed so the rest of the correspondence looks a bit odd. Other readers should just be aware how low these Tories will sink.
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Editor's comments
Hi Dave, fair point, I think your comment here now explains why some posts appear out of context to new readers. Thanks,
Tom
Peter | 23/10/2009 4:46 pm
Gosh, for a minute I thought I was losing my marbles!
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