Gloves Off in Ealing Central and Acton Fight
Labour candidate says Joy Morrissey's ' tantrum is insult to residents'
Rupa Huq, Labour's candidate for the Ealing Central and Acton seat, has blasted her Conservative opposite number for withdrawing from election hustings.
Joy Morrissey is unhappy with comments on Ms Huq's campaign leaflets regarding Ealing Hospital and accused Labour of publishing 'blatant lies' about her. She has pulled out of recent education hustings - and has said she won't attend any others including one due to be held tonight (30 May) at St Mary's Church, Acton, W3 9NW.
She is seeking a retraction and has threatened legal action.
A statement in response to the hustings boycott has been issued on behalf of Ms Huq today.
It reads:
"It was entirely predictable that The Tory candidate would refuse to debate, given her record on the NHS and Brexit. She has lashed out at our campaign because she knows she cannot confront the facts. She did vote against the Save Our Hospitals campaign and she did campaign for Brexit. These are facts on the public record and she cannot run away from them no matter how hard she tries.
Her campaign allege that Ealing Hospital is not closing despite the NHS openly saying that there will be no District General Hospital in our Borough. A 50-bed “local hospital”, with no surgery, no critical care, no acute beds, no blue-light ambulances, no A&E, no maternity unit and no children’s ward is not a ‘hospital’ any resident of the Borough would recognise.
It is a complete nonsense to accuse someone of lying and then running away without making the argument by facing them at hustings events. What is she scared of? What does she have to hide? When Rupa sees a problem she faces it head on. As she has on multiple occasions when confronting the Prime Minister on the Tory threat to the NHS. You get nowhere by shying away from the debate.
The Tory candidate's tantrum is an insult to residents. She is refusing to defend her record in public whereas Rupa has taken every opportunity she can to engage with voters, even in the most challenging of circumstances, before the big day on June 8th."
There are three candidates for Ealing Central and Acton:
Jon Ball - Liberal Democrat
Rupa Huq - Labour
Joy Morrissey - Conservative
30th May 2017
