29 June 2010 - World Cup Jolly for Tory Leader

There has been a lot of focus in the past few days on the breaking scandal that Plymouth's Tory leader spent £5,700 on a jolly to the World Cup in South Africa paid for by Plymouth Council Tax Payers.

Here is Labour's response to today's Herald postbag letter that asks why Labour has not been holding the Tories to account for this jolly. The short answer is that we have as Cllr Tudor Evans explains below:

Dear Postbag,

Can I assure Mrs Blunkett of Eggbuckland that the Labour Party is very much opposed to many of the policies of this Conservative administration. But where we agree, we are happy to support.

For example, we support the World Cup bid. But we are opposed to the secrecy surrounding the decision to send Mrs Pengelly and Mr Keel on a jolly to South Africa. Why not send the Council official who is actually working on the bid?

Plymouth was the only bid city to send their leader and chief executive. Many of bidding councils sent no-one at all. Two cities sent a technical officer between them to report back to both councils. One sent a member of their bid board. No council other than Plymouth sent a Councillor.

I gathered and sent this information to the Herald's Keith Rossiter and to BBC Radio Devon. Radio Devon treated it as a news story. Keith Rossiter put it in his "funny" column rather than make it news. That's the Heralds decision, and it's their right to do so.

We issue press releases on a regular basis and phone or text journalists on the Herald and local radio with our views. They don't have to print them or air them! Lack of appearances in the media should not be seen as a lack of work or a lack of concern on our part.

To paraphrase an old saying, you can't believe anything you can't read in the newspapers! We have been out every weekend since the middle of May knocking on doors across Plymouth and delivering leaflets. We'll be in Eggbuckland too.

Plymouth Labour Party has a website www.plymouthlabour.co.uk and Facebook page and Twitter feeds. You can see what we're up to there.

Best wishes

Cllr Tudor Evans
Battling the Conservative and Lib Dems, not just at election time

Want to find out more about the Tory Footy Jolly? Watch our video here: