Conservative Party And Standards Of Honesty

EDM number 1101 in 1993-94, proposed by Harry Barnes on 21/04/1994.

That this House deplores the serious decline in standards of honesty exemplified by the false claims made about Derbyshire County Council in a Conservative party political broadcast on 6th April; notes the inaccurate claim that a councillor in prison had claimed ú4,000 in council allowances whilst running a council housing budget whereas, in fact, that county council has no housing responsibilities and the councillor in question had automatically received ú1,231 in allowances to which he was legally entitled before his appeal was considered by the courts and his subsequent disqualification; understands that such crucial differences may not be fully recognised by a casual observer of the type that the broadcast purported to interview; further understands, however, that the comments quoted in the broadcast were not from a genuine and randomly selected member of the public but from an actor using a carefully written script which had clearly not been checked for its veracity; and calls upon the Conservative Party to clearly disassociate itself from this blatant attempt to smear the Labour Party.

This motion has been signed by a total of 40 MPs.