THURROCK MP, Jackie Doyle-Price has made a robust defence of her reasons for voting against the Labour motion on the Bedroom Tax in parliament on Tuesday night.
The Labour motion called for the abolition of the bedroom tax/spare room subsidy.
The motion was defeated by 26 votes.
Jackie Doyle-Price said:
“I voted for the Government amendment to Labour’s motion because that is the motion I agreed with. The Labour motion was incoherent, partly because it had been tabled at the eleventh hour after their first motion was ruled procedurally out of order as it referred to the bedroom tax, which of course as we all know doesn’t exist.
“I can count on the fingers of one hand how many constituents have raised it with me. Notwithstanding the hysterical claims of the Labour Party, the Government has made money available to support those in oversized property through discretionary housing payments to enable people to adjust.
“The principle is sound. The taxpayer should not be paying the rents of people who are living in properties which are bigger than they need, particularly when there are families on the housing list in desperate need of that accommodation.”
Why didn’t Labour table a motion that would have repealed their own legislation that did exactly the same thing to people in the private rented sector. Do people in the private rented sector not count?
As someone who administers Housing Benefit and deals with the appeal letters from those impacted by the Bedroom Tax words would be wasted on replying to Jackie Doyle-Price.
Actually, the fact that constituents affected have not raised it with JDP probably says more about her electoral prospects for 2015. MP and Cllr caseload increases when prospective voters believe in you,
My bet is Thurrock Council have yet to evict anyone becasue of this and my bet is also that the arrears caused by this are being managed and dealt with in other ways. Admittedly the exemptions on this didn’t really go far enough but, it was the Labour party that started the ball rolling on this in the private rented sector. Where were all the tears from the left then. The Labour party were the cause of the housing crisis in this country, as any sensible person can see.
It seems to me that the left only cry foul when it affects the state sector. To them the state is all powerful and all pervading and must not be made to live in the real world like the rest of the peasants. State control and state subsidies to the state itself should remain intact. By all means attack everyone else but leave the state sector alone. I wonder why that is.
[…] Thurrock MP Jackie Doyle-Price voted against a Labour motion on the Bedroom Tax in Parliament last Tuesday (12th November). She claimed that she can count on one hand the number of constituents who have raised the issue with her. See here for the full story on Your Thurrock – http://www.yourthurrock.com/2013/11/14/thurrock-mp-on-bedroom-tax-count-on-one-hand-the-number-of-co… […]