Camden News: Glenda Jackson | tax-and-spend party | Labour MP | Rosslyn Hill Chapel

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Camden News - by TOM FOOT
Published: 2 April 2009

Chris Philp, Ed Fordham, Glenda Jackson, Magnus Nielsen and Rosslyn Chapel chairman Paul ver Bruggen at the candidates meeting

Glenda’s ‘proud to be in the tax-and-spend party’

GLENDA Jackson came face to face with the challengers to her parliamentary seat on Thursday in one of their first public debates.
In a clash over economic policy, the Labour MP said she was happy to stand as a “tax- and-spend” candidate.
Ms Jackson was at Rosslyn Hill Chapel in Hampstead with Conservative candidate Chris Philp, Liberal Democrat Ed Fordham and UKIP’s Magnus Nielsen. They will fight out the Hampstead and Kilburn constituency at the next general election.
More than 150 people watched as Ms Jackson, 72, who has represented Hampstead and Highgate since 1992, defended Labour’s record on the economy. “Yes, we cosied up to the City in 1997, because we wanted to win an election – and we ended up winning three,” she said. “We are still regarded as the tax-and-spend party and I am proud of that.”
Ms Jackson added: “The idea that, had we invested in different ways, we would be on some heady perch above the global implosion is ridiculous.
“People are bewildered and unsure and nervous about their future. I remember being saddled with a huge debt when I was young. I came through it. I survived.”
Mr Philp, who is a Conservative ward councillor for Gospel Oak, said: “The government has run up a big credit card bill and suddenly the credit has run out. That is why locally we are freezing council tax, because we believe the pound is better off in your pocket than being frittered away by the government.”
Mr Fordham urged voters interested in finding a solution to the recession to mark an X next to the “Vince Cable Party”.
“I remember the time the repossession trucks came to my parents’ house under the Conservatives,” he said. “I do not see the point in replacing one party that has failed on the economy with another one that has a history of failure.
“We need a new approach.”

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