Harlow MP Chris Vince hits back at Dan Sword’s council tax claim
Chris Vince / Wed 15th Jan 2025 at 05:23pm
THE MP for Harlow has hit back at the leader of Harlow Council over his claim that the council will be punished by the Labour government for keeping council tax down.
Councillor Dan Swords had issued a press release (see below) on the back of two articles in the Daily Telegraph and the Daily Express, which
In response to the Leader of the Council’s comments, Chris Vince MP said:
“The Leader of the Council knows I will always work with him constructively for the betterment of our town.
I am disappointed that, instead of action, the Leader of the Council has decided to get his excuses in early.
“Harlow deserves a Leader of the Council who just gets on with the job, instead of empty words to score cheap political points. “
adam
2025-01-15 17:43:55
It is like dumb and dumber, politicians snipe and score points while the UK and town crumbles
Nick Gunning
2025-01-15 19:02:33
Councillor Swords is doing his bit to aid the Tory press hate campaign. The voters rejected his party decisively 6 months ago so they're busy running distraction exercises to deflect from their appalling record. But we can see their record in the pavements, roads, boarded-up shops, hopeless queues for doctors' appointments etc. Then there's their council tax lie. They claimed to have frozen council tax- but they only 'froze' the town's part. They are mere succubi to the over-powerful Essex County, who put their part of the tax up by 8%. With other inflationary increases in charges, the concession was smoke and mirrors. But, of course, with their tradition of placing the burden on the most vulnerable, another hike in council rents. The government should have a mechanism to reign in bogus claims and punish those- not imaginary freezes in taxes!
JRR
2025-01-15 19:51:43
Dan Swords should never have been leader of Harlow Council. All he's done is said a lot of words with no punch behind them & what you see of him is yet another photo standing there with he's hard hat on pretending. Harlow town was bad enough but it's a dam site worse since he's been leader. All he's doing is pulling it all down, it's looks nothing more than a building site. Give him some Lego he may learn something & get somebody to run Harlow to knows Harlow & what Harlow needs or before long it won't be a place to live in.
David Forman
2025-01-16 01:17:42
The picture of grinning Chris Vince with Angela Rayner holding a placard that says 'Labour's Plan to Make Work Pay' is a nonsense.' The most important element of the plan (known as the New Deal for Working People before the election), sectoral collective bargaining across all industries, has been whittled away to a dumbed down 'fair pay agreement' in adult social care and for school support staff. Many other elements of the Labour's New Deal have been watered down in the a Employment Bill announced last year, but that's before lengthy consultation with industry chiefs and discussion in Parliament's Committee stage takes its toll on key elements vital to workers' ability to defend themselves collectively. Novara Media's article spells out the risks: https://novaramedia.com/2025/01/10/labour-said-it-would-make-work-pay-will-it/
David Forman
2025-01-16 01:58:00
Even in the two instances of Fair Pay Agreements these are not in any sense collective bargaining agreements. The Institute of Employment Rights analysis of the new Employment Bill states: "the arrangements for pay determination in the case of adult social care workers and school support staff respectively are subject to tight control by the responsible ministers. In truth what the Bill is proposing is a form of pay determination, but not pay determination by collective bargaining as that is normally understood by industrial relations experts, trade unionists, HR managers, lawyers, and most importantly, by the International Labour Organisation (ILO)." It is worth noting that neither of the two Fair Pay Arrangements meet the ILO standards for collective bargaining as stated in ILO Conventions 98 and 154. See paragraphs 17 to 21 of ILO analysis at https://www.ier.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/The-Employment-Rights-Bill-An-IER-briefing-25-11-2024.pdf
gary roberts
2025-01-16 07:33:03
It could be said that the only worthwhile government minister is Angela Rayner who really should lead the party. Starmer lied to his membership to get the position. MP Vince is just there to voice Starmer in Harlow. Lets hope he learns to fight to improve services in Harlow not just use rhetoric to say how bad the last lot were. We know that already!
Stuart
2025-01-16 09:06:39
Mr Swords' attempted political play has somewhat backfired.
gary roberts
2025-01-16 09:20:44
And just watch and listen to Owen Jones about "socialist" Starmer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v00Yki1mIAk MP Vince should take note.
Bob
2025-01-16 12:57:35
Nick Gunnings, you're griping that this council is failing to repair the highways well it's not the town council to do so, it's the County Councils job. Regarding the shop closures is caused by more than just business rates etc it's more about the lack of customer footfall and the increase in purchasing from websites. Anyway this town has too many fast food and not essential shops.Give the council a chance, just look at the works being carried out around the town, it's inconvenient but give them the chance to change this town into a place to visit and have the best shops, there more housing being built with the backing of the council so things are looking up for the town. Labour wasted million when our MP was council leader, that where. Your griping should be laid. Harlow Council tax has not risen blame the Tory county council for the bigger rises and remember the Labour government have risen the Ni tax for employers putting pressure on all Councils.
Stuart Crook
2025-01-16 16:04:54
Make the most of your time as mp you only have 4 1/2 years then you win have to find a job
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