Andrew Dismore

Dear Editor,

Along with most Conservative and Liberal Democrat MPs it is a disgrace that Hendon’s Conservative MP chose to follow party orders and voted  to reverse the main improvements made in the House of Lords to the Gagging Bill.

He voted on the one hand to remove new rules limiting secret lobbying by big business; and on the other to put back in key limits on what campaigners, charities, and voluntary groups can do to speak up on issues of the day. I would suggest the exact opposite of what most people in Hendon would wish to see.

Yet again we’ve seen the Conservative and Liberal Democrat MPs, including Hendon’s, push through a law which the public have never voted for, and which has been heavily criticised by everyone from the United Nations to the Citizens Advice Bureau, the Women’s Institute to the Royal British Legion.

Charities and voluntary groups should be able to speak up in the run up to next year’s elections, as part of the democratic process of holding the Government to account.

We can only assume that Hendon’s Conservative MP is ashamed of his voting record and does not want it to be exposed by such charities when he faces the electorate again in 2015, yet wants to be sure that big business like the banks are not constrained in their electioneering, bearing in mind his Government’s poor record in constraining their excesses.

yours sincerely

Andrew Dismore

Labour candidate for Hendon