“Labour have lost touch with ordinary people” says Green Party Parliamentary candidate for Streatham, Jonathan Bartley, who challenges Ed Miliband to disprove him by overturning the Labour council’s decision on Tulse Hill housing.
A member of the audience challenged Labour leader Ed Miliband over Labour’s destruction of a Tulse Hill Community in last night’s “The Battle for Number Ten” on Channel 4.
Suggesting it was an example of Labour betraying its values, it propelled Labour-led Lambeth Council into the national limelight as an example of how the Labour party has lost touch with ordinary people.
Jeffrey Louis-Reed, an artist and writer from Brixton, put the point to Miliband that “You’ve made it quite difficult for your supporters and for people who are undecided. You’ve had a few gaffs recently, and you don’t really seem to be fighting for the values your party stand for. Places like Cressingham Gardens or museums closed due to the decimation of arts budgets”.
Jonathan Bartley presenting the petition for a safer local junction in Streatham.
His comments on Cressingham follow the decision taken by Matthew Bennett, the Labour Cabinet Member for Housing, to partially or wholly demolish the estate.
Lambeth Green Party have been supporting the residents in Cressingham Gardens in Tulse Hill and Green Party leader Natalie Bennett recently visited to express her support.
Jonathan Bartley, Green Party Parliamentary candidate for Streatham who has been actively supporting the residents campaign said: “As the audience member made clear, Labour have lost touch with ordinary people. Rather than standing up for ordinary people, Labour is not just turning its back on them but adding to their misery with their ruthless commitment to austerity.
“While Milliband is presenting Labour as a changed party from the Blair-Brown years, what Lambeth Labour are proposing for Cressingham Gardens is indicative of a lingering, old-fashioned New Labour strain of politics which remains powerful in the party. Ed Miliband chose not to refer to the issue in his answer, and I’m sure the residents of Cressingham would welcome pressure from him to overturn the decision before they can begin to believe that the Labour Party truly is taking the lives of ordinary people seriously”.