Posted by JLW on Sunday May 29, 11:14
Story from the South Manchester Reporter:
"NEW Withington MP John Leech is facing a baptism of fire three weeks after deposing Labour's Keith Bradley.
The Lib Dem's first month in office has already been beset by stinging criticisms about his "ruthless" election strategy - and now he finds himself fighting "a war on two fronts".
The invective has mainly centred around the MP's pre-election claims that Christie Hospital could close under Labour.
The dire warnings were seen as key to Mr Leech's election success but health bosses have since rubbished the idea.
On top of that, the under-fire parliamentarian has also been vilified for keeping his post as a Chorlton Park councillor - he can claim up to £15,000 a year in expenses on top of his MP's salary - while busying himself with the affairs of parliament at the same time."
Full story online at the South Manchester Reporter
Should John Leech continue to be a councillor for Chorlton Park while he is the MP for Manchester Withington? Leave your comments below.
+ tags coming soon
( 57 Comments )
Lorenzo
Thursday May 26, 20:49
A by-election would cost the Council tax payer thousands. I seem to remember Keith Bradley staying on the council after he was elected, and Graham Stringer. Why should John Leech stand down?
Sally
Thursday May 26, 21:11
Who runs this web site? Are they Labour party members? Would the person who runs this web site please give me their mobile number so I can contact them "at any time". Come on- what are you hiding for?
Administrator
Thursday May 26, 21:15
http://www.johnleech.org.uk
You can read more about who this website is run by here: http://www.johnleech.org.uk/?show=about.
Any further questions you can email admin@johnleech.org.uk.
Tim
Thursday May 26, 21:26
I can imagine the outrage if John Leech just put out a url and an email address!
Surely that would warrant several articles on 'John Leech Watch'.
So come on, stop hiding...
Administrator
Thursday May 26, 21:30
http://www.johnleech.org.uk
There is no single contributor to the website so I can't say email so and so. The main difference is that John Leech is the MP for our constituency and he has a duty to be available to his constituents - this website simply creates a forum for people to express their views about John Leech.
Alan Gormley
Thursday May 26, 22:44
No one is sugesting that Mr Leech should stand down as Cllr. Perhaps if people took the time to read thing properly before hastily posting comments they would see that it merely poses a question for debate.
In the Suth Manchester Reporter today Mr Leech claimed that he would use the £15,000 he gets as Cllr to fund his office and staff. Why? He will get, in addition to his personal wage of around £60,000+, an additional sum in excess of £58,000 for expenses just as this. If there is no shame in taking extra public money for continuing as Cllr then why suggest that he is going to put the money towards resources that are already financially provided for. A question, perhaps more for the Electoral Commission than John Leech Watch.
Thomas Graham
Thursday May 26, 22:57
I agree with Alan, the article does not suggest he should stand down, and the article on John Leech Watch merely asks for people's opinion - it doesn't suggest he should stand down either. What people should be saying is I believe that John should continue because of the wonderful job he did as a councillor, or I believe he shouldn't because he won't be able to do both jobs at the same time.
Tim
Thursday May 26, 23:04
Surely if in the main part of the article says "the under-fire parliamentarian has also been vilified for keeping his post as a Chorlton Park councillor" then there is a suggestion that he should step down!
Alan
Thursday May 26, 23:10
By the South Manchester Reporter perhaps; not by the person who posted it Tim
Laura Jackson
Thursday May 26, 23:23
Sally, I'm not a Labour Party member, nor did I vote for Labour at the last election. In a democracy politicians are open to legitimate criticism. If John Leech and his supporters are not comfortable with that then perhaps he shouldn't be the MP.
Mark Colburn
Friday May 27, 03:25
If memory seves me right Keith Bradley carried on as a Councillor until the following local elections a year later. As far as I know John Leech is going to continue until 2008 at least. I would have thought that he's going to have his work cut out representing both ward and constituency. I suspect the electors of Chorlton Park are the ones who are going to lose out. I think it would be sensible if Mr Leech lets go of his council position as soon as practically possible and concentrate on being an MP.
Chorlton Parker
Friday May 27, 03:36
Yes - I agree with Mark. I don't want an expensive by-election. But surely he must stand down at the next council elections and let us have three councillors who are in the ward. Won't he be in London most of the time?
Alice
Friday May 27, 04:04
What worried me a bit was that I'm not sure Leech understands the difference between being a Councillor and being an MP. In todays Reporter he says that"the issues that come to me as a councillor and an MP are interchangeable" - no they're not he's a member of the legislature now not a more highly paid councillor for the whole constituency
Conrad
Friday May 27, 05:30
I'm Curious. I've read about so many people being ignored by leach. Has anybody written to him? and have they receive any reply?
Sarah J
Friday May 27, 15:02
Conrad, I wrote to John Leech about 'right to buy issues' and am yet to receieve a response- i wrote to him on friday 6th that was three weeks ago,
NOJOB
Friday May 27, 15:31
where i come from most people are grateful to have a job certainly one that pays £60 grand plus and then expences.
to have two jobs is just plain greedy and disrespectful to people
on the bread line
Don't be a leech John give someone else the chance to represent us on the council, some one who won't be in London allweek
Chorltonviller
Friday May 27, 18:49
In my opinion John Leech will do more for our area than Mr Bradley ever did. Claims that Mr Leech lied about Cristie's are false and labour would probably have liked to close this hospital just as they did WHitington so now people of Manchester Wittington must travel to Wythenshaw for A and E. I support Mr Leech's decission to keep up his role as councillor and most people seem to have forgotten that he does not recieve a salary for his job at the council only expenses. Mr Bradley did little for our area in his time in power and i'm sure Mr Leech will do better.
Alan
Friday May 27, 18:59
Chorltonviller, Leech receives in excess of £11,800 in 'expenses' per year for 15 hour work per week as Cllr. To some people that is a yearly wage not expenses. With regards to Keith Bradley and his political record... perhaps you need to do a bit more research or maybe just open your eyes!!
James Stooly
Friday May 27, 21:32
'Chorltonviller': I suspect that you are a former house mate of John Leech and a supporter of his cause. John Leech lived for many years rent-free in Chorltonville and Chorlton Green and was as cunning and disloyal as Richard III, as well as the present day. I have catalogued a massive response of his activities in the last 6-7 years and they will be revealed shortly in a national publication. This man (John Leech) is one of the most unctious MP's that I have ever investigated, some of the anecdotes, that I have gathered from former friends and aquaintances beggar belief. This is not a man who would sell his grandmother, to quote a common phrase, this is a man who would sell his soul, as Christopher Marlowe might say.
dave
Saturday May 28, 00:10
what an interesting letter from sister audrey and what righteous language
'venting spleen''quest'beseeching us 'poor people'to receive his [leech's ]help [lucky old us]
Does this person actually exist,
Does she know what century it is
Does she think that she is a missionary
Does it run in the family
I think we need to be told
Sue
Saturday May 28, 01:02
It seems to me that it is a very good thing that Christie's is not in fact under threat. Does anyone know what these '60 doctors'(if they existed) actually said - did they sign a petition?? It must be public? Did they say - we the undersigned think XYZ about the configuration of cancer services? Or did they say we the undersigned say the hospital might close?? Big Difference there.
Giles
Saturday May 28, 05:06
I woke up on election day morning and found the Lib Dem leaflet, with the fraudulent claims about the Christie Hospital. This drove me to vote for the labour party for the first time since 1992. I was disgusted by the lies and even more disgusted that they seem to have been sucessful. This is not the first time that the Lib Dems in Manchester have used lies in their attempts to win votes. I remember well the time when they invented the "closure" of the Chorlton Leisure centre at a time when the local council was actually investing money in the centre. Hopefully this invention of campaigns which are later claimed to have been won have now been found out and will not fool the voters again. God help us if we ever got a LD local council!
Graham Cliff
Saturday May 28, 05:12
http://NA
John Leech speaks the truth!
If the truth hurts then Labour need to wake up.
They are currently arrogant and ignorant,
This is usualy a Conservative failing,
Do we now a have a LABOUR "conservative" governmement?
I HOPE NOT BUT THE FACTS PRESUME THE TRUTH.
Tony Blair is To(R)y Blair!
Or am I just wrong?
Comments would be welcome.
Graham Cliff
LABOUR now IS fascist?
Steven
Saturday May 28, 05:15
Your comment seems a little odd - there cannot be much question as to whether the campaign by John Leech was true. I don't think this can be made any clearer than it was by the Chief of the Strategic health authority: "There have been despicable rumours that the Christie would close. This is complete and utter nonsense and wholly irresponsible. The hospital has been, and always will always be, central to our plans for the future of cancer services."
Alan
Saturday May 28, 13:46
The truth is what I think we are all after Graham! What exactly is the truth? Why don't you wake Labour up? Or is your version of the truth as skewed as John Leech's.
"Save Chritie Hospital" What from? The £7m investment it's just received and the support that it continues to receive from a government that has invested record amounts in the health service?
Karen James
Saturday May 28, 23:19
sounds to me that there's bound to be a period of crossover between being a councillor and MP with regards to casework. Therefore there shouldn't be any haste in stepping down as a city councillor. What's all the fuss about. Being elected as MP means basically seeting up a small business with premises offices and staff in two different places.
I would be really hacked off if a councillor was doing something for me then dropped everything just becuase he was elected to parliament.
Give the guy a break - its just this sort of stuff that hacks off the voters like me.....and we ask why people can't be bothered to vote.
Chris
Sunday May 29, 00:12
http://www.politicswatch.org.uk
Karen, I'm not suggesting for a second that he should step down from his council position immediately. What I oppose is him keeping it until 2008 which is what he proposed to do in an attempt to take over the council. By the way I have worked with MP's before and their work is far from the simplicity you describe.
Tim
Sunday May 29, 02:01
Where did John Leech propose to stay until 2008?
I hope you have a source, rather than just believing the rumour mill.
Thomas Graham
Sunday May 29, 02:15
I think John Leech's term as a Councillor in Chorlton Park lasts until 2008, so would have to stand for reelection then if he wanted to remain councillor. So in answer to your question... people are making the assumption (which is quite reasonable) that John Leech proposes to remain as councillor to 2008 if he isn't going to stand down.
Alan
Sunday May 29, 02:19
As you can imagine Tim i don't have cosy chats in the evening with John Leech, nor to I go out for a few pints with him every Friday. My comment is an assumption, and as Thomas says, he is due to remain Cllr until 2008 and until he publically announces otherwise, thats how it is!
Tim
Sunday May 29, 03:59
Where has John Leech said that he would stay on until 2008? And how would him standing down in a safe Lib Dem seat effect who controls the council?
Alan
Sunday May 29, 05:51
Where has he said that he won't. As far as a 'safe seat', no seat is safe I think May 5th goes to prove that!
Thomas Graham
Sunday May 29, 14:11
I think that if John Leech was going to stand down, then he probably would have already done so. The point that is being made is quite simple Tim, if John Leech doesn't stand down, he will remain cllr until 2008. It may well be a good idea for him to stand for relection in 2008 though - Labour will be retaking Manchester Withington at the next general election which may well be in 2009.
Tim
Sunday May 29, 15:54
Hear say and conjecture in conection with whether he would stand. But that does seem to be enough for you to criticise your new MP, even though he has only been there for three weeks!
BTW, good luck retaking the seat. Labour will be even more unpopular, and the Lib Dems have a VERY good record of holding parliamentary seats, especially the first re-election.
As for those predicting that they will retake the seat (not just on this site) they were all confidently predicting between a 5 and 8 thousand majority for Bradley. They are clearly not that in tune with the electorate. Maybe if Bradley had worked harder he would have kept the seat. But he took the electorate for granted.
Alan
Sunday May 29, 17:21
What more would you have had Keith Bradley do Tim? Follow in John's footsteps and campaign on national, uncosted and unclear policies that will never happen because thankfully the drunken scotsman who leads the party doesn't stand a cat in hells change of becoming PM; or perhaps we could have campaigned against the closure of Withington Library.. "Save Withington Library".
'But it's not under threat of closing' I hear you shout!!
Point made!
John
Sunday May 29, 22:43
Political feeling post election certainly seems to be running high in Manchester Withington. Not only is there a John Leech Watch but another website seems to have sprung up called Politics Watch. It's at www.politicswatch.org.uk for anyone that is interested.
John 2
Tuesday May 31, 16:40
What a misleading web site - the article in the Reporter was about this site, and clearly was fed information from the same people who have created the site - it is certainly not an "independent article" which just happened to appear in the local paper.
Strikes me that some local Labour activists are finding it hard to accept that they lost. Personally, apart from about 5 leaflets from the Lib Dems I found it a very quiet election as usual - which is I guess why the labour activists are so angry - they thought it was in the bag.
As for the Christie sub plot - I first heard about it on National television - it was leaked that the Tories were going to hold a press conference about it as part of their national campaign - but they must have changed their minds after the leak.
Alan
Tuesday May 31, 17:50
Either that or they changed their mind when they realised it wasn't true!
John 2
Tuesday May 31, 18:09
Clearly there is a lot of disquiet in the medical profession - indeed one of the independent candidates in Withington was a local doctor and former labour supporter, who campaigned exclusively on what he perceives as the privatisation of the NHS. I understand that a much smaller proportion of doctors said that they intended to vote Labour in 2005 than in 2001. The Tories were trying to tap into national discontent about and within the NHS. I doubt that they saw the Christie story as sgnificant enough nationally - at worst a relocation of some facilities to another hospital within Manchester. It was bound to have some resonance in Withington however, and had it occurred when Mr Bradley had first been running for the seat I don't doubt that he would have used it.
Sue Helliwell
Tuesday May 31, 18:38
John 2 - Yes a full discussion of all policies relating to the NHS would have been good during the election. But to turn a review (involving no loss of funding) about the best way to provide treatment, on clinical grounds, into a campaign that clearly gave the impression that the hospital was closing, was a dispicable lie. To quote the head of the strategic health authority "There have been despicable rumours that the Christie would close. This is complete and utter nonsense and wholly irresponsible." When will John Leech apologise for the distress he has caused!
John 2
Tuesday May 31, 19:40
Politicians do not usually apologise. I have not noticed that Tony Blair has apologised for the at best, misleading information, that was put out before the Iraq War - remember the dodgy dossier!
I have looked again at the Lib Dem web site - carefully worded material about the review of services at the Christie - with a headline of which a tabloid journalist like Alistair Campbell could be proud! Unfortunately our politics are conducted by soudbites and tabloid headlines - personally I would prefer a more intellectual approach - but I am frequently being told that I don't live in the real world.
Sue H
Wednesday Jun 01, 01:08
Oh come on John(2). If you shove thousands of posters screaming 'Save Christie Hospital' through letter boxes you can hardly use the 'but I didn't actually say the hospital was closing' line. It is just a BIG CON.
Poppy
Wednesday Jun 01, 15:52
Shouldn't John Leech now concentrate on continuing Mr Bradley's hard work rather than being bogged down by this website. it would show more strength of character if she turned the other cheek on got on with her new responsibilities
J
Wednesday Jun 01, 18:21
Isn't his name really John Letch?
Englebert Humperdink
Wednesday Jun 01, 18:55
To Poppy (2 comments above) - When did John Leech have the sex change op?
Andrea Jefferson
Wednesday Jun 01, 18:59
http://www.jefferson.co.uk
A huge thank you to John for saving Christies. How amazing. He saved it all on his own in two weeks. Tell a lie loud enough and often enough and people believe you. Where is the pelican crossing at the top of Didsbury village? Liar liar pants on fire.
Andrea Jefferson
Wednesday Jun 01, 19:02
http://Andreajefferson.co.uk
I think J must fancy him really.
Poppy
Wednesday Jun 01, 19:59
The fact is englebert, hes running around like a big girls blouse. I don't agree with the way he ran his campaign but he won and nows his chance to prove himself rather than just reacting to people disagreeing with him, um hold on isn't that what politics is all about? Oh yes, John, you'll go far.
Andrea Jefferson
Wednesday Jun 01, 21:30
http://www.jefferson.co.uk
A huge thank you to John for saving Christies. How amazing. He saved it all on his own in two weeks. Tell a lie loud enough and often enough and people believe you. Where is the pelican crossing at the top of Didsbury village? Liar liar pants on fire.
Dominic H
Wednesday Jun 01, 22:14
You all seem so cynical of John Leech's intentions, personally I am cynical of them (like I would be with any politician) but I would still vote for him.
Why? Because he has worked harder for this constituency and his ward than any other MP or Cllr that I know of. You all say that you don't trust him (well most of you do), but you must remember that more people are willing to trust him and place their support in him than Keith Bradley.
I mean, at least give him a chance to prove himself before you all try to tear him apart. Stop being bitter that Labour lost the seat.
P.S. Shame on you Thomas Graham I thought that you were above supporting Labour.
Iain
Thursday Jun 02, 15:09
http://gwelotimes@webmail.za
What a bunch of cranks and misfits the labour party in withington are. Why don't you put all this effort in to campaigning for the metro link which was scrapped by your party?
Major Tom
Thursday Jun 02, 16:27
Hello Mr Donaldson...
Joe
Thursday Jun 02, 20:30
Dave would you not defend your family members? Although I am curious as to which letter you are refering to?
Steve B
Sunday Jun 05, 02:41
I think it's a bit unfair to call the story misleading... actually the story is just the first few paragraphs of an article that barely mentions the website other than: "And, as if that wasn't enough, a new website has been launched to keep tabs on his actions in a sort of political eye-spy. Bloggers have already used the site to fire off withering attacks on the MP's character.
Mr Leech, however, came out all guns blazing this week, claiming it was 'sour grapes' after former MP Keith Bradley was ousted after 18 years.
Mr Leech said: "I'm finding my feet, but it's disappointing spending a lot of the time trying to justify what I'm doing because the Labour Party seems to be stabbing me in the back."
Jonathan Galway-Jackson
Sunday Jun 05, 19:29
Can some people please grow up, and focus on the lies this man has told?! You are discrediting yourself with this MP/councillor waffle. Often the most effective representatives have held dual office. In Ulster one has MLAs MPs and councilors in the same person.
Get on with the task in hand, and as one letter in TSMR said this week 'get the facts right'.
JGJ
Alan
Monday Jun 06, 00:21
Ahh, the famous 'academic' has finally decided to grace this site with his infinate wisdom. The same academic that did pointless research which some how found it's way into the SMR about ballot paper mix ups!! Perhaps Mr Galway Jackson should himself 'grow up' and heed the words of former Cllr Geoff Bridsen, who states in the SMR "..Mr Galway Jackson clearly needs to get back to the real world.."
Perhaps if Mr Galway Jackson was indeed in the real world he would have poured his efforts, as an 'acclaimed academic', into exposing these lies instead of carrying out half baked research and arriving at ridiculous conclusions.
M. Slater
Monday Jun 06, 15:14
Couldn't agree more Alan.
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