Setting the record straight – Exposing Labour’s falsehoods and misrepresentation of Greg Mulholland’s voting record
In recent weeks, the Labour Party has been using paid-for promoted tweets and Facebook messages of a graphic giving a deeply misleading impression of Greg Mulholland's voting record.
Already the Leeds North West Labour candidate and his team have already been forced to apologise TWICE (see here and here) for making false statements on leaflets and has had to publish and distribute TWO apologies now.
One of these false statements was about Greg Mulholland's voting record. Their leaflet called 'Mythbusters' made a number of misleading claims about Greg's voting record, including one wholly untrue statement saying "in 2010 our Lib Dem MP voted in favour of the 2010 Academy Act". Having received a solicitor's letter, Alex Sobel and his agent were for forced to apologise and to print and distribute 15,000 leaflets retracting the false claim and pay £2,000 of legal costs.
Alex Sobel, who was the Yorkshire organiser for Ed Miliband's leadership campaign, has been criticised for his election campaign and for misleading people about Greg Mulholland's voting record, including on the 'bedroom tax'. Greg Mulholland clearly voted against the Government whip on 1st February and on 21st February 2012 - the only two votes on the bedroom tax during the passage of the Welfare Reform Bill!
Yet the graphic produced by the Labour Party is no less misleading!
So here is the reality of Labour's phoney claims:
- Raising VAT
The graphic claims I voted for raising VAT on working families. This was part of the coalition government's first budget in summer 2010. However, the record is clear that I did NOT vote for the two specific votes on 13th July 2010 about increasing VAT!
So Labour should apologise for making this claim when it is clear that yet again, they have said something that is not the case!
- Bedroom tax
As above, Greg voted for against the bedroom tax and the Government whip on 1st February and on 21st February 2012 - the only two votes on the bedroom tax during the passage of the Welfare Reform Bill! He has consistently opposed the measure. For more detail see here.
- "Tax break for millionaires"
In the March 2012 Budget, the Chancellor reduced the top rate of tax from 50p to 45p. The Liberal Democrats only agreed to this change in exchange for our key policy of taking lowest earning families out of tax altogether, something the Labour Party never did in 13 years.
This is also a remarkably hypocritical claim by Labour. For nearly all of Labour's 13 years in government, the highest top rate of tax was 40p. They had a deathbed conversion to the 50p rate, in their final month in government, meaning the 50p rate only existed for 36 days out of their 4,758 days in office. And even with the coalition government putting it at 45p, it is still higher than the 40p rate it was throughout the 13 years of Labour, bar those 36 days!
What is even more extraordinary is that, for all their supposed opposition to lowering it, only two Labour MPs actually voted against lowering the 50p tax rate to 45p!
Labour's record on taxing the lowest paid workers is equally shameful and Gordon Brown famously abolished the 10p tax rate, meaning the lowest paid workers ended up paying 20% income tax.
So the reality is that higher earners pay MORE income tax under the Coalition than under Labour, and the lowest paid earners pay LESS income tax than under Labour. Many of the lowest paid now pay NO income tax at all, thanks to the Liberal Democrats.
- £8 minimum wage/Ban on MPs' second jobs/Energy price freeze/Sure Start centres/Mansion tax to fund the NHS
Labour claim I voted against raising the national minimum wage to £8, against a ban on MPs taking second jobs, against freezing energy prices, against protecting Sure Start centres and against a mansion tax to fund the NHS. What Labour won't say is that these were all Opposition Day debates!
Opposition Day debates do not make law or lead to any change.
They are opportunities for opposition parties to raise issues of concern to them. Opposition Day motions, being written by the Opposition, usually criticise the current Government and are about creating press releases for opposition MPs. They change nothing and are merely an opportunity for a debate.
For example, for the motion calling for a ban on MPs having paid directorships, the motion did not make clear how it affected MPs involved with their family-run firms! Their poorly worded motion, merely an attempt to grab headlines, would have stopped shopkeepers from standing for Parliament as they could not have retained any interest in their family shop, despite the fact they might only be an MP for 5 years! I am happy to be part of a sensible debate about how we can clamping down on MPs having paid directorships, but we have not had any vote in the House of Commons that would actually change things in this regard!
So Labour are misleading voters for suggesting I somehow voted against action on the above issues when the motions would not meant any action even if passed!
The shameful voting record of Labour's Yes Man
It seems clear that this misleading campaigning is an attempt to cover up the Labour candidates' shameful voting record on Leeds City Council. Alex Sobel has a record of saying one thing to local residents, but voting the other way on the Council!
- He claims to oppose the NGT Trolleybus, yet he voted FOR it on Leeds City Council.
- He tells people he believes in the living wage, yet he has TWICE voted against it being introduced for Leeds City Council employees (the Council is run by Labour).
Labour's candidate, already dubbed as 'Ed Miliband's yes-man, shocked a packed hustings audience with a lengthy and unconvincing account of why the Labour whip was so important and that he had been right to vote for the Trolleybus, despite then claiming to oppose it - and ludicrously objecting to the scheme he voted through to the Public Inquiry.
After been forced to apologise for two false statements on leaflets, is it any wonder than residents are wondering if they can believe anything that is said by the local Labour party and their candidate?
The Choice in Leeds North West
There is a clear choice for people in the Leeds North West- independent-minded Greg Mulholland, who has strongly represented the area for the last ten years and has voted against his whip many times - and Labour candidate Alex Sobel, who has never voted against his party whip on Leeds City Council and has TWICE said one thing, but voted the other way.
Greg Mulholland has voted a remarkable 62 times against the Government whip since 2010, around 10% of all votes in the Parliament, far more than any other Leeds MP and far more than any previous MP, including Labour's Harold Best. Greg voted against the bedroom tax, tuition fees and the Health & Social Care Act,
Greg Mulholland is also the only backbench MP in recent history to mastermind a Government defeat on a legislative vote when he did so in November last year. As Public Affairs magazine stated, "Greg Mulholland is in the company of a group of MPs in this Parliament who have made a considerable impact from the backbenches".
By contrast, Alex Sobel has never defied his party whip and has made little impact as a Councillor in Moortown - with many locals there complaining that he is not around in the ward as he is always in Leeds North West.
The polls clearly show a race between Greg Mulholland and Labour, so many residents are making their decision on Leeds North West on the stark difference between the two candidates - and are saying that they want an MP who will put the area before politics and that they want an MP they can trust!