Saturday, April 17, 2010

Tory candidate Peter Lyburn in NI letter controversy

Tory Candidate for Perth and North Perthshire Peter Lyburn is at the centre of a political storm tonight over an open letter to the Courier and the Perthshire Advertiser on the proposed Tory NI cut. This letter, submitted by Lyburn on Thursday, was apparently supported by local business leaders- but a number of the alleged signatories, including the President of the local Chamber of Commerce say that they did not agree for their names to be put to it.

The President of the Chamber of Commerce, Paul Shields, said that he felt

disappointed that I’ve been misquoted and disappointed that I’ve been used for political games. .


Local Liberal Democrat candidate Peter Barrett was disgusted at the Tory deception and called on Lyburn to withdraw before nominations close next Tuesday. Peter said:

"This sort of shoddy treatment of respected members of our business community, who contribute greatly to the economic viability of our area, is shocking. An MP has an absolute duty to respect his constituents' confidentiality. Mr Lyburn has been derelict in that duty and cannot be trusted. It is bad enough that he broadcast the views without consent but attributing false signatories to an open and politically motivated letter is woeful. It is completely unacceptable and conduct falling so far short of the standard required that Mr Lyburn should withdraw from this election contest. He has to go. You simply cannot play politics with people's good name and business reputation.”


This is serious stuff - in my opinion way more serious than the comments which caused the resignation of Stuart MacLennan as Labour's candidate for Moray last week. Peter Lyburn has put the names of local business people to a letter that they hadn't seen or consented to sign. I simply don't see how he can continue in this election with any credibility at all.

If people in Perth want someone who will work tirelessly to support them, then they should vote for Peter Barrett. He's tenacious, ferociously hard working and will fight hard for the area.

1 comment:

PhD Girl said...

The whole fuss over National Insurance is a mystery to me, given that the contribution the Tory proposals would make towards rebalancing the economy are minor.

Unfortunately, public spending cuts are on the way whoever wins the election. Nick Clegg's strong statement in favour of saving £97 billion by not replacing Trident seems to have gone down very well with the electorate, who have no appetite for new nuclear weapons. Lib Dems need to highlight the fact that they plan to cancel wasteful, expensive, and unpopular government projects like Trident and ID cards and instead protect public services from cuts as far as possible.

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