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A challenge to Andrew Smith

24 March

In a letter to the Oxford Mail, Labour councillor Gill Sanders calls on Maurice Leen to justify his credentials as the IWCA’s parliamentay candidate for Oxford East. In reply, Cllr Stuart Craft defends Maurice’s record and calls on Andrew Smith MP to come out and debate the real issues affecting Oxford residents with the IWCA instead of hiding behind the personality politics and spin of his party.

Labour city councillor Gill Sanders’ letter (Oxford Mail, March 15th) indicates that, regardless of the posturing from other parties, it is the IWCA that Andrew Smith fears will end his reign as MP for Oxford East.

Cllr Sanders appears to find it distasteful that anyone should stand for Parliament if they come from outside the well-heeled, university educated clique, from which mainstream parties today draw their representatives.

The IWCA’s prospective candidate for Oxford East, Maurice Leen, is challenged to ‘let Oxford know what he has done in the way of public service over the past few years’. This is a bit rich coming from a representative of the Labour government, which continues to pursue ideologically driven policies that undermine the lives of those it once claimed to represent.

Maurice Leen, in contrast, has a history of fighting the corner of working class people in Oxford East. He was instrumental in getting a successful Self-Build scheme up and running in Wood Farm in 1998, encouraging a number of local people on low incomes to get involved in building their own homes.

After working for many years as a plasterer and then a carpenter, he took a substantial drop in wages in 1999 to pursue his interest in advice work and has helped numerous people with housing, employment rights, benefits and pensions while working at the Claimants Union in east Oxford.

For the past few years he has been giving advice to residents who attend IWCA weekly surgeries on Blackbird/Greater Leys and also more recently in the Churchill ward. He is also a tirelessly devoted party activist at ward level.

If elected he will, unlike any of the other candidates, draw only his current modest wage from his MP’s salary. The rest would be put to good use in the constituency. Anyone who wished to check would be able to see this on the Electoral Commission’s website.

We are not interested in personality politics but in addressing the issues that affect the people of Oxford East. We challenge Mr Smith to publicly debate these issues with the IWCA.

Stuart Craft

IWCA City Councillor