Gisela Stuart criticises Brown's "old-style politics" for "lacking veracity"

Labour MP Gisela Stuart has been one of the most outspoken people on the left in calling for a referendum on the EU treaty.

Now she's turned it up a notch in the Evening Standard by linking the deception over not holding one with Brown's attempts to say that he didn't cancel the general election because the polls turned:

• "Recent events have shown some rather old-style politics, with the Prime Minister looking indecisive and lacking veracity"
• "To pretend that Labour was not gearing up for an election or that opinion polls played no part in the decision to postpone it was silly and gave David Cameron some of his most damaging ammunition."
• "Sticking to your guns in defence of a patently dishonest position is not leadership but the soft option and a cop-out from a specific promise made to voters."
• "The path adopted by the Government is neither honest not coherent. We have reached the absurd position where the Government says there will be a referendum only if its red lines are not met, so presumably it will ask people to vote 'no' on a treaty it has not signed."
• "The red lines are red herrings. It's a matter of trust and integrity. A referendum was promised. It should be delivered. If Labour can't trust the people, why should the people trust Labour?"

Ouch!

Comments

[Orlando]

Well...no cabinet post for her anytime soon! She's also not likely to be in Parliament after the next election, whenever that'll be, since her Birmingham Edgbaston seat is likely to go Tory!!

[Deborah Thomas]

It's worth considering that Gisela is MP for ultra-marginal Edgebaston, which excellent Conservative candidate Deirdre Alden may well take int he next election.

Sounds like a desperate attempt to appeal to our voters in the Midlands.

[Man in a Shed]

And will she be willing to follow through by resigning the Labour party whip if no referendum is forthcoming ?

[Tony Makara]

"It's a matter of trust and integrity."

Again and again people from all shades of political opinion are calling into question Gordon Brown's character and are asking whether he is a person who can be trusted. Integrity is a quality that Brown clearly lacks. Everyone can see that.

[Frank McGarry]

Well done, Gisela.
What a pity there aren't more independent-minded MPs on the labour benches.

On the referendum issue,Gordon Brown is breaking the manifesto commitment that ALL Labour MPs made to their constituents.

[Tapestry]

The New labour coalition is dissolving. There is only way for the party to go - back to its democratic roots. If Labour somehow throw out Brown, hold a referendum on the Constitution and abide by the choice of the public, they could find their way back.

Otherwise they will hand over power to Cameron and the Conservatives. The game of spin and cynical policy manoevre is over.

[Battered Motorist]

The Daily Mail, 15/10, has the non-story of no changes of policy over road pricing. You would get the opposite impression from the same day's Telegraph, though...

There are as yet no PRs on the Dept for Transport website, which indicates there is no new initiative to announce.

So the regional trials that were set up to build national road pricing piecemeal will go on, while Brown just pretends to be listening to concerns over his next big stealth tax.

[truthsayer]

Gisela Stuart is quite right. I think the one factor which characterises the labour party in the past decade is their constant "in your face" assertion that black is white. There can be few people who do not, in the quiet of their minds, think that oceans of money have been wasted on the NHS, law and order, and education, for little return. And yet Brown, his cabinet, and the parliamentry labour party to a man, will stand before the public and assert that huge benefits have been gained by the public. They do it on the "Today program" on a daily basis (with BBC support). They are not unintelligent, and are therefore dishonest, consistently. However in all honesty the lib-dims and the tories are very similar. hence the general impression that MPs are one down from second hand car salesmen.
However, in the case of NuLabour it has never before been so true of their politics. The average thinking man will now not believe anything that the government says, any committee report, any statistics, any advice, any government statement. He will say instead "What are they trying to do here, what are they really up to?

[The Laughing Cavalier]

Gisela Stuart is one of the very few Labour MPs with integrity. We should listen carefully to what she says.

[mark starr]

Gisela has been consistent in her stance that the EU needs democratic support. Tony Blair put her on Committee which vetted the EU Constitutional Treaty before it was originally put to the vote, clearly he was expecting a lady born in Germany would be pro-EU. She may be but even more relevant was the importance she placed on democracy.