Wealden's MP Nus Ghani has been referred to the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA) by Chris Bowers, her leading opponent at the forthcoming general election, in the growing row over a leaflet the Liberal Democrats have described as 'greenwash electioneering'.
Several constituents have contacted Ms Ghani's parliamentary office to find out more about a leaflet they'd received entitled 'Your Guide to Going Green', which the MP claims to have written, and which states was funded with money from her parliamentary allowances. Bowers says that this is likely a misuse of taxpayers' money - on top of their salary, MPs are allowed to claim a number of tax-free allowances. This includes a communications allowance to help MPs inform their constituents about their work, however it cannot be used for party political purposes. This is at the centre of the Lib Dems' complaint and was previously covered in an article on this website and in an article by the Kent-Sussex Courier newspaper (pictured below).
As detailed in a Sussex Express article today we were all shocked and saddened to hear that the Hailsham LibDem HQ was vandalised in the early hours of Sunday morning, the third such incident this year. Previously, paint was thrown at the building and the windows were also shot with a BB gun.
Wealden District Councillor Neil Cleaver, who lives nearby, said he returned home late on Saturday night following a Hailsham Bonfire Society meeting. "It was close to 1am when I walked home, and I passed right by the building and it was definitely not defaced at that time," said Cllr Cleaver, who was the first to spot the damage, which consisted of red and white paint that had been thrown across the windows and walls, the next morning around 8am when he was driving past. He immediately reported it to the police and took photos.
Hailsham Mayor Paul Holbrook expressed his deep dismay that this has happened again. "This is the third time this year, and it looks like the same people are responsible," he said. "It's exactly the same kind of thick gloss paint which is near impossible to clean off and it will also be costly to repair. Last time a group of us gave up an entire weekend to help repair the damage, clean and repaint and the building, and it was looking great." Mayor Holbrook says he's grateful the police are taking it seriously, and hopes an eye witness will come forward to help. "Unfortunatelythere's no CCTV nearby," he explains, "but since we have such a narrow timeline we're hoping someone saw something so the police can finally catch the culprits."
With Johnson doing all he can to force his so-called "new deal" through Parliament tomorrow, despite experts' warnings that his hastily compromised version of May's thrice-defeated deal is even worse and will spell total disaster for the UK (aside, that is, from the handful of wealthy Johnson cronies who stand to benefit at the expense of the rest of us British citizens), tomorrow's People's Vote March in London is set to be the most important one yet.
The Liberal Democrats' Wealden parliamentary candidate Chris Bowers has slammed Conservative MP Nus Ghani for using parliamentary allowances to fund an environmental leaflet that he calls "greenwash electioneering".
Chris Bowers, who is likely to be the leading challenger to Ms Ghani at the next general election, says the Conservative MP has seemingly used taxpayers' money for advance election publicity disguised as public information.
The NHS is haemorrhaging "hundreds of thousands of pounds in Wealden" through interest payments on debt, according to figures unearthed by the Liberal Democrats.
The figures from the Department for Health and Social Care, uncovered by a Liberal Democrat Freedom of Information request, revealed over £600 million worth of interest on outstanding debt was paid nationally by NHS trusts to the Department for Health and Social Care in the last five years.
Chris Bowers has been named as Wealden Liberal Democrats' parliamentary candidate and will stand in the general election that looks increasingly likely to occur either later this year or early next. And with Chris' candidacy comes the very real possibility of Wealden gaining a LibDem MP (and its first ever non-Tory MP).
Members of Sussex for Europe, many of whom are also Wealden LibDems, joined the demonstrations outside the Houses of Parliament yesterday, September 4th, while the drama inside the House of Commons continued.
Less than 24 hours later there's been so much dramatic breaking news from Westminster that it's hard to keep track.
Please join us in signing the petition against proroguing Parliament.
So far today over 650,000 people have signed the petition against proroguing Parliament. The number of signatures is going up all the time. You can sign the petition here.
And you can see how many people have signed it in your constituency here.
Together with the Green Party and the independent members, we put up amendments to try to encourage the ruling council to speed up their agenda but every vote was lost.
It's EU Elections Day today and the sun is shining so please do get out and vote! With Farage's Brexit "Party" still ahead in the polls, it's absolutely vital that Remainers and all those in favour of a People's Vote on the final deal turn out and unite to vote for the Remain Party in their region that has the best chance. In our region, the South-East, latest polls show that the LibDems are now best placed to take an extra seat from the Brexit Party and that a vote for Change UK would unfortunately be a vote wasted (they would need over 7% to get a single seat and are nowhere near that).
