Crawley Labour Reject English Votes For English Laws

Below is a press release I've issued after Crawley Labour rejected our Motion tabled at last week's Full Council meeting. One of the Councillors rejecting our Motion was the Labour Parliamentary Candidate for Crawley, Chris Oxlade, who is pictured below with the person he thinks will make a great Prime Minister, Ed Miliband. 

"Don't worry Ed, I'll never vote for English votes for English laws"

The Conservative opposition at Crawley Town Hall have blasted the ruling Labour group for “sabotaging” a Conservative Notice of Motion. The motion had called on the Council to support English votes for English laws for all Parliamentary votes that related to English local government.

The Conservative Notice of Motion had intended for the Council’s Chief Executive to write to the Local Government Association, calling for them to lobby the three main political parties to make English votes for English laws a manifesto commitment for the general election. This would mean that regardless of the election’s outcome, English votes for English laws would become a reality.

The ruling Labour group forced through an amendment to the Motion that removed nearly all of the references to “English votes for English laws” and replaced it with a “Constitutional convention” that included looking at options for Regional Assemblies, all after the general election.

Conservative group leader Cllr Duncan Crow said “Labour completely sabotaged our Motion by cynically taking it away from English votes for English laws, so that it became a complicated fudge which meant we had to abstain on the eventual vote. Labour strongly argued against our Motion and it is very obvious that they have no intention whatsoever of implementing English votes for English laws should they be in government after next May.

Cllr Crow added “People don’t want more politicians and more government as Labour are proposing with Regional Assemblies, they want fairer government. A very clear dividing line has now been drawn in Crawley between Conservatives who believe in fairness of representation and Labour who want their Scottish MPs to decide on laws affecting Crawley, despite the fact that Crawley’s MP can’t vote on devolved Scottish issues.”