Local Conservative MP Damien Moore has been roundly criticised for issuing “patently ridiculous” statements and an “absolutely shameless” grab for credit where it’s not due, according to opponents.
It comes after the Tory politician sent out a letter to constituents which claimed that:
“years of underinvestment and neglect by Sefton Council have led to a decline in the standard of our infrastructure and services. As the Member of Parliament, I intend to campaign and lobby the appropriate authorities for a better deal.”
He also claimed that residents had contacted him with concerns over issues such as the purchase of the Bootle Strand Shopping Centre.
Now, the leader of Sefton Council, Ian Maher, has hit back saying that the MP clearly has “little understanding” of the situation:
“I realise that the Southport MP is newly-arrived from Preston and only pops up at weekends as he still doesn’t live in the town or even the borough but he really needs to be better informed locally before making such outlandish claims. Sefton has invested around £94 million in Southport on capital projects alone.”
“Recently we could be putting a lot more in if it wasn’t for the fact that his party and their Liberal Democrat allies will have soon reduced our funding by 51%, that’s resulted in funding gaps of £233m through their cuts. Just imagine the difference that amount of money could have made to Southport and the rest of Sefton.”
“The Strand meanwhile has the third highest footfall in Liverpool City Region and we’ve bought it in large part because it is actually a credit to our books and an income stream to help us offset those cuts.”
“If he really wants to lobby the appropriate authorities then he needs to get knocking on the doors of No 10 and 11 Downing Street but I expect he’ll find they are out. His letter to the people of Southport is risible in the extreme.”
The MP was also attacked for his comments in the letter about crime and for elsewhere trying to claim credit for a knife wand initiative that was actually funded by Sefton Council.
Liz Savage, Labour’s prospective parliamentary candidate for Southport, described the MP’s behaviour as “shameless”, explaining:
“It’s patently ridiculous to claim to be acting on residents’ fears of crime in the area when his party and the Lib-Dems cut police funding by £2.3 billion and now crime is rising. What exactly did they expect to happen after the loss of well over 40,000 police officers, PCSOs and support staff?”
“We’ve been very poorly served by Southport MPs on this issue, previously John Pugh voted for those cuts and now Damien Moore has just voted for yet more cuts to police funding.”
“Not only that but he’s now trying to claim credit for knife wands being brought in to Southport when it’s actually being paid for by Sefton Council through the Safer Communities Partnership and so they deserve the credit, not him. It’s false glory hunting and absolutely shameless of him. He’ll be claiming he was behind the Atkinson refurbishment next.”
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