York MP Hugh Bayley still backing Prime Minster Gordon Brown after Labour Party Conference speech (From York Press)
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York MP Hugh Bayley still backing Prime Minster Gordon Brown after Labour Party Conference speech
8:23am Thursday 1st October 2009 in
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- By Gavin Aitchison » gavin.aitchison@thepress.co.uk
GORDON BROWN is “not a glamorous figure” and “not a very good publicist”, but he still has what it takes to lead Britain, York’s MP has said.
As the Prime Minister tried to brush off the impact of losing the support of The Sun newspaper, Hugh Bayley said the Prime Minister’s speech to the Labour Party Conference this week showed clear differences between his party and the Conservatives.
Mr Bayley said Mr Brown had set out a “powerful vision of what the future would be like if Labour was re-elected”.
In a round of interviews yesterday, Mr Brown sought to turn attention back onto his new policies, which included free home care for elderly people, a maximum one-week wait for cancer tests and hostel accommodation for teenage mothers, after which Mr Bayley said Mr Brown was not an “enigmatic chat-show-type figure”, but he praised his policies.
“I am the first to admit he is not a glamorous figure, but people want reassurance that jobs and housing are safe and I think more than Cameron, Gordon [Brown] has the confidence and experience to provide the leadership on the crucial issues,” said Mr Bayley.
The York MP said Mr Brown had been right to intervene to support the banks. He said he supported the Prime Minister’s calls for a referendum on voting reform, and backed his proposals on a national care service. Mr Bayley said he would not predict the result of the next General Election, but admitted publicly for the first time that his own seat would be a straight fight between him and the Conservative candidate Susan Wade Weeks.
The Labour MP currently has a majority of 10,472, but he said: “Everyone knows in York that either myself or the Conservatives will get in.”
Selby MP John Grogan, who is standing down at the next election, said Labour had been buoyed by the week’s conference.
He said: “I think the combination of Lord Mandelson and Gordon Brown has put fresh heart and fighting spirit into the party.”
Mr Grogan said the decision by The Sun newspaper yesterday to come out in support of the Conservatives was less important than it would have been in the 1990s, due to declining readership.
He said he would “not presume” to predict the public’s verdict in an election, but said he thought there was still “everything to play for”.
Comments(16)
Kiff
says...
11:26am Thu 1 Oct 09
Probably the only reassuring thing in this story is that the Lib Dems are expected to be little more then irritant rather then a contender in the next election.
D_Dutch
says...
11:56am Thu 1 Oct 09
Erm... we know what a future under Labour would be like - we've had their awful policies for the last 12 years.
And as for the PM’s calls for a referendum on voting reform, this is only because they know they're going to lose badly come May 2010, but with a proportional representation reform, would still have some influence.
And speaking of referendas, where's the one promised by Labour years ago on the EU Constitution?!? (Let's just hope the public of Ireland, who were actually trusted by their MPs to vote in this , say No again and in bigger numbers tomorrow.)
Kiff
says...
12:15pm Thu 1 Oct 09
Think you are a bit out of touch there. If you think back to the time of the Good Friday Agreement, then you might remember that the Irish government have referendums because their constitution requires it. However, it doesn't stop their government from repeating the referendum one until they get the answer "right". Tomorrows vote is (I think) the third time they've gone to the poles.
Kiff
says...
12:26pm Thu 1 Oct 09
bbbricar
says...
1:26pm Thu 1 Oct 09
Kiff
says...
2:03pm Thu 1 Oct 09
bbbricar wrote:Oh dear, so many mistakes in such a short comment...
Gordon Brown is un-elected, he has no mandate to run England, he can't even say the name of the country, yet loves to take money from England to give to the scots. It is time for England to have the same devolved government scotland has, and it's time to stop subsidising scottish students, scottish and welsh prescriptions etc with English taxpayers money. If Brown had any decency he would have quit months ago. If Bayley think Brown is good, then he should bugger off an' all. Walter Mitty had a better grip on reality.
Let's start with something simple. Like *every* PM we've ever had Gordon IS elected. He was elected at the last general election as a Scottish MP. The monarch then appoints him as her Prime Minister. This is the ways it's always been and probably the way it always will be.
D_Dutch
says...
3:13pm Thu 1 Oct 09
And yes I am aware that it is now the "Lisbon Treaty", but being as it's practically the same thing as the "EU Constitution" was, i don't see the point in disguising it with another name.
Regarding bbbricar's point, he is an elected PM as Kiff says. Britain voted in Labour; Labour voted in Brown as their Leader (sorry, 'vote' is the wrong word - there were no other contenders were there?): & consequently he becomes the PM. However, i do see some of bbbricar's point as (rightly or wrongly) the public usually votes at a General Election on who they want as PM. I personally don't - i look at the Parties, but i know a lot do. And in this sense he is 'unelected' by the wills of the British public.
chunks
says...
7:10pm Thu 1 Oct 09
He does seem to care for big business more than residents, for example recently showing unequivocal support for the racecourse rather the concerns of residents.
This has lost him my vote, and the vote of many other residents.
RingoStarr
says...
8:39pm Thu 1 Oct 09
Er...which is what exactly? The man's a MORON.
Iraq?
Boom & Bust?
Lady Scotland?
The Gurkhas?
Banker's Bonuses?
MP's Expenses?
Unemployment?
Lockerbie Suspect Release?
etc, etc, etc.
Jim Pooley
says...
9:30pm Thu 1 Oct 09
As for Gordon Brown being "unelected", this is a bit of a moot point. As Kiff point's out, he is clearly elected. Also at the last election we all knew he wanted the top job. We had heard the stories about the Blair/Brown pact. It's really should not have come as a surprise to anybody that he took over. But, and this is a big but, at the time he was taking over it was repeatedly suggested there be an election - either within the Labour Party or a general election. This would have made his premiership appear more legitimate. I assume this is the point that bbbricar was trying to make. Not having a contest was simply poor judgement on Gordon's part, and it wasn't the last either.
The point I think Hugh has got right is that he thinks that the next election will be is a two horse race. He's probably right - the LibDems lost the recent Heworth local election to a troubled Labour party. Add to that their PPC's poor track record, reputation and quarrels with his own party then it strikes me that Labour are not the only party that need to consider a change of representative.
humpty numpty
says...
9:48pm Thu 1 Oct 09
Pleb
says...
5:08am Fri 2 Oct 09
It would be a disaster if the Conservatives were elected led by Cameron who has no experience and little understanding of most people's lives and problems.
Those parroting the newspaper criticisms of Labour seem to have forgotten Thatcher's policies which destroyed large parts of Britain's industry, and handed others to private business. Witness the current high energy prices which the companies refuse to reduce in line with the wholesale price which has halved since last year.
Hugh Bayley has been a good MP for York - I hope he is re-elected.
Pleb
says...
5:08am Fri 2 Oct 09
It would be a disaster if the Conservatives were elected led by Cameron who has no experience and little understanding of most people's lives and problems.
Those parroting the newspaper criticisms of Labour seem to have forgotten Thatcher's policies which destroyed large parts of Britain's industry, and handed others to private business. Witness the current high energy prices which the companies refuse to reduce in line with the wholesale price which has halved since last year.
Hugh Bayley has been a good MP for York - I hope he is re-elected.
humpty numpty
says...
8:40pm Fri 2 Oct 09
Son of Amigo
says...
10:20am Tue 6 Oct 09
bbbricar wrote:I totally agree!! Gordon is a moron.
Gordon Brown is un-elected, he has no mandate to run England, he can't even say the name of the country, yet loves to take money from England to give to the scots. It is time for England to have the same devolved government scotland has, and it's time to stop subsidising scottish students, scottish and welsh prescriptions etc with English taxpayers money. If Brown had any decency he would have quit months ago. If Bayley think Brown is good, then he should bugger off an' all. Walter Mitty had a better grip on reality.
It'll take years to recover from Gordon's little errors of judgement, vote TORY whatever!
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Mullarkian says...
10:20am Thu 1 Oct 09