Fulham & Chelsea MP Greg Hands spoke out today after it emerged that newly-elected Labour Councillors were claiming a “mandate” from a secret manifesto published only 2 days before the Council elections.
Labour councillors claimed they were elected on a platform of cancelling the Earl’s Court development, which was planned to create 7,500 new homes and 12,000 new jobs. This was announced by the new Labour Council Leader at the count on election night, with the BBC London journalist Sonja Jessup tweeting: “Stephen Cowan, Labour leader, Ham & Fulham, tells me some planned developments here will now be scrapped”.
At that time, probably nobody except the Labour Leader knew of the secret manifesto. The .PDF document was subsequently published, but the document tracking history shows it was created on 20th May, 48 hours before polling day, and giving nobody the chance, least of all the Hammersmith & Fulham electors, the chance to scrutinise it.
Fulham and Chelsea MP Greg Hands MP commented: “Labour was elected on a wholly negative campaign about the future of the Charing Cross Hospital, which had already been guaranteed. Now they are claiming a mandate based on a dodgy document created at the last minute. The claimed mandate extends to a number of left-wing proposals, including the ending of 7,500 new homes and 12,000 new jobs at the Earl’s Court development. There was very little local opposition to this big development, and a lot of local support, so I am surprised that Labour seem to be set on reversing all the important preparations made for it, based on their dodgy dossier ‘manifesto’”.