Lord Stoddart of Swindon Says VOTE UKIP

I wish I could have been a fly on the wall when Gordon Brown got this ...

THE PRESS OFFICE OF
The Lord Stoddart of Swindon

(Independent Labour)

News Release

26.5.09

Lord Stoddart of Swindon Says VOTE UKIP

Lord Stoddart of Swindon, the Independent Labour Peer and former Labour MP for Swindon, who usually spurns European Parliamentary elections, has decided to use his vote on 4th June for the UK Independence Party (UKIP) and has encouraged other Labour voters to do the same.

In a statement confirming his voting intention Lord Stoddart said: “I am appalled at the refusal of the Government to tell the public the truth about the extent to which the United Kingdom is now governed by the European Union and that vital decisions affecting our interests are being taken by a gaggle of twenty six other nations, whose interests are often inimical to those of Britain.

“The only way to save our country from complete absorption into a single centralised European state is to leave the EU and, since not one of the major political parties supports this policy, UKIP is the only realistic alternative.

“Those Labour voters who value democracy and self-government can, by voting UKIP on 4th June, send a clear message to their own and the other traditional parties that the hand-over of powers has to stop and be reversed.”

Ends Note 1

Lord Stoddart was a member of the Labour Party for fifty four years and served as a councillor, leader of a county borough council, MP, Housing PPS and a government whip, a Front Bench spokesman and whip in the House of Lords and an active trade unionist at local, regional and national level. He was expelled from the Labour party in 2001 for his actions in protest at the imposition of Tory defector Shaun Woodward on the safe Labour seat of St. Helens South. Woodward had been a Labour Party member for less than two years.

Note 2

The Labour Party (as opposed to Labour Governments) had opposed Britain joining the EEC (Common Market) and were in favour of withdrawal until 1985, when the then Leader of the Labour Party, Neil Kinnock succeeded in altering that policy to one of support. He, cynically, believed that by doing so he would win the following election in 1987. He didn't win that election or the subsequent one in 1992.