A HARLOW councillor has written to YH as a response to recent comments by MP Robert Halfon.

Netteswell councillor James Griggs said:

Life on ‘Planet Halfon’ must be a difficult juggling act. Trying to remember which side of the fence you are facing has to be challenging when you flip flop so much.

“In his Times comment piece today, Robert Halfon talks of ‘needless headlines of threatened benefit cuts, removal of affordable housing measures and so-called “efficiency savings” on public services, which is usually code for cuts’.

“He goes on to suggest that he agrees people are not asking for a lot when they seek – quality housing, a good school or college, quick access to a doctor and other NHS services, a crime and anti-social behaviour free neighbourhood.

“All laudable aims to which all decent people can aspire but he seems to have conveniently forgotten that his party, the Government he has consistently supported since his election in 2010, have drastically cut police police numbers, made it difficult for councils to build houses, failed to make education spending keep pace with rising costs and decimated the NHS.

“Hard working people are once again being subjected to real terms pay cuts at the same time as an enormous rise in the cost of living created by the economic incompetence of Mr Halfons Tory Party.

As winter approaches the NHS will come under even greater pressure, this week the British Medical Association (BMA) accused Ministers of ‘escalating harm to patients’ by ‘failing to properly invest in or resource’ the NHS. They warned that ‘nowhere near enough is being done to save it’ adding that it is ‘falling apart before our eyes’.

Only a couple of weeks ago Mr Halfon was urging us to give Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng ‘a chance’. Well that went well didn’t it! 

Mr Halfon talks of the PM still having time to hit the reset button but it’s becoming increasingly clear the only button she is capable of hitting is the one marked ‘self destruct’ and she seems hell bent on taking us all down with her.

“But not before this weeks Chancellor, the fourth in just a few weeks, has suggested something that looks horribly like a return to George Osbornes austerity. Just how do you find ‘efficiency savings’ in services you’ve already decimated?

“Robert Halfon is right on one point, there is a desperate need for a reset, it’s called a General Election and a Labour Government”.