THE LEADER of Harlow Labour has reflected on MP Robert Halfon’s report on his work over the last twelve months.

Councillor Chris Vince said: “The current Conservative MP’s contributions to YourHarlow are getting more and more bizarre.  In this week’s installment he appears to have completely forgotten that it is his own government who have been in charge for the past 13 years.

He claims to be the champion of education whereas in 13 years of his government we’ve seen per pupil cuts to education spending, a disastrous re-grading system and teachers leaving the profession in their droves.  While he’s busy incoherently bumbling his way through calamitous interviews about so called ‘rip off degrees’ (he was unable to name any) his government’s so called ‘gold standard’ T-levels have been heavily criticised.  He claims to be the champion of apprentices at the same time as his government’s endless cuts to Harlow council mean the local Conservative’s have been forced to cut apprenticeship places.

Then there’s the little matter of the NHS.  In 2010 when his Government came to power 95% of people using A&E were seen within 4 hours.  The Conservative’s promptly lowered this target and still failed to meet it.  We now see people waiting for up to 13 hours in Harlow’s A&E Dept! What is Mr Halfon’s answer?  To cap the number of Doctor’s that universities are able to train and increase the pressure on those still working in our hospitals.

The bold claim that he’s going to make our streets safer would be laughable if there weren’t such tragic consequences to the Conservative’s 13 year demolition of our county’s police force.  In fact, it is only recently, 13 years after they came to power, that the Conservative’s have returned police officer numbers to 2010 levels with many of them forced to do non police roles due to cuts in staffing numbers left unaddressed. However, the return to 2010 policing levels is still a real terms cut as it does not reflect the increase in the population of Harlow so, yet again, the police are being asked to do more with less. There were 33 PCSOs in Harlow when the Conservatives came to power, now there are only 5!

It’s utterly disgusting that whilst our current MP finds it acceptable to talk about people fleeing persecution in a way that dehumanises them it is worthy of note that he and his government have completely failed on immigration too!  The number of people seeking asylum in the UK when they came to power was around 24 000, it’s now 160 000.  They have increased the number of people processing claims five fold in that time but decreased the amount of work they do! His language towards vulnerable minorities is frequently inflammatory and does not in any way reflect the views held by the decent majority in our town.

Finally he talks about cutting the cost of living, conveniently forgetting that it was his own government’s disastrous handling of the economy which has led to it in the first place.  A catastrophic budget which has led to rising food prices, soaring inflation and fuel costs spiralling through the roof.  All the investment in infrastructure (most of which we are yet to see and won’t for some time) is only good if people have the funds to spend on it.

Fortunately, people across Harlow can see through the smoke and mirrors of Mr Halfon and his hapless government and we can only hope that the chance to give the whole sorry lot of them the boot comes sooner rather than later.

However, there is hope for the people of Harlow in the form of the next Labour government, led by adults rather than self serving narcissists like Boris Johnson, Rishi Sunak and their law breaking cronies. 

“The next Labour government will provide the NHS with the support that it needs, will value our key workers and recognise the need to train more Doctor’s and nurses, it will put police back on the streets and in communities, and tackle the issue of immigration in a fair and humane way.  It will put the needs of the many before the needs of the few wealthy individuals who bankroll the Tory party.