JOHN LISTER
Socialist Alliance Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Oxford East. (www.oxfordsocialists.org.uk)
Press Release
Immediate Release: Friday Feb 23
Socialists step in to Labour’s Oxford funding row
The Labour Party in Oxford has been accused of abandoning its links with working people as news emerged yesterday that it was seeking funds from local business chiefs at a £360-a-table dinner with local MP Andrew Smith.
According to the Guardian report, Mr Smith, chief secretary to the treasury, sent personal invitations to hundreds chief executives in Oxfordshire inviting them to the reception at Oxford’s swanky Four Pillars Hotel. They were promised that another minister, Patricia Hewitt, would also be there. The meal prices range from £65 a head to £360 for a table of six.
Socialist Alliance candidate John Lister, who will be challenging Mr Smith in his Oxford East constituency, said:
"Whether or not there is any implicit offer of special favours at this event, it is clear that Labour is now a party up for sale – and that only the wealthiest need apply.
"It shows how far Labour has moved from its traditional support in the trade unions and ordinary working people. How many people on Barton or Blackbird Leys, or young homeowners struggling to pay sky-high mortgages in Oxford could afford a £65 a head meal?
"Following hard on the heels of the revelations of Tony Blair's Labour ministers hob-nobbing with billionaires in the "cash for passports" row, and the spate of millionaires donating to Labour, it shows that the Party is now addicted to courting the rich, and increasingly ignoring its traditional core support.
"Like most Labour activists in Oxford – whose only chance to eat with Andrew Smith is to buy a bun and a cup of weak tea at Labour’s Christmas Bazaar – we haven’t been invited to the Four Pillars beano. But we will be there, to remind Mr Smith of the constituents he has forgotten. And we will be organising an alternative, more affordable, curry night for local trade unionists and socialists to get together."
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