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 Ed Fordham
Mike Greene |
Look who it is! Jobless local voter on radio show turns out to be Tory Mike
A FORMER Conservative councillor in Hampstead infiltrated a live radio show at the Lib Dem conference in Bournemouth to challenge party leader Nick Clegg over his plans for a “mansion tax” and to question the party’s honesty.
But listeners said Mike Greene’s plan appeared to backfire when he was unmasked on BBC 5 Live presenter Victoria Derbyshire’s show by his former election rival, Ed Fordham.
He had presented himself as an unemployed man looking for work until it was revealed on air that he owned two houses.
Mr Greene quit the council last year after moving to the seaside town, where his wife is a councillor and he has narrowly missed out on winning the Tory’s parliamentary candidacy.
The former parking chief turned up among 200 of the town’s residents who joined Ms Derbyshire’s live question and answer broadcast from a hotel at the conference on Monday.
He posed two questions to a panel of Lib Dems, including Mr Clegg, and presented himself as a man searching for work and in danger of falling foul of the Lib Dem plan to introduce a supertax for people with homes worth more than £1million.
“I’m a local resident and unemployed at the moment,” said Mr Greene, who did not mention his Tory allegiance or his political background.
“We put everything into our house. Why would you bother going to look for a part-time job if the few thousands of pounds that you earn go straight back into the tax coffers?
“I thought the Lib Dems were like the Conservatives and looking to incentivise people to go back to work but you are saying don’t bother – we are going to take everything you earn.”
Ms Derbyshire said: “To be clear Mike, you lost your job and you own a million property?”
Mr Greene replied: “That’s right, we put everything into that house.”
He later questioned an old Lib Dem campaigning document called Effective Opposition which advises members to “be wicked” and “act shamelessly” when not in power, a file later withdrawn by the party.
His goading, however, appeared to be badly timed as Mr Fordham was on the panel and recognised him from their previous run-ins in Camden. He intervened, telling the audience that the jobless man asking the questions had two homes – including an expensive property in Fitzjohn’s Avenue, Hampstead.
Mr Fordham, who claimed on the radio show to be a close friend of Mr Clegg, said: “Hello Mike, former Conservative councillor for Hampstead. One of Mike’s questions was about honesty and he could have said he was a Conservative councillor. He asked about property tax. Sorry to hear about your unemployment problem. My advice would be to sell his second home in Hampstead, NW – but he knows he’s going to hold onto it.”
There were heckles and theatrical gasps – audible on the radio – when Mr Fordham filled Ms Derbyshire in on Mr Greene’s full identity.
The radio journalist responded: “Is this true, Mike? You may be unemployed but you have two houses now.”
To the earlier question, Mr Clegg defended the mansion tax scheme by insisting the unemployed would get a break from the policy.
“We are not after unemployed people,” he said.
There are some Lib Dem supporters in Hampstead, however, who need convincing that elderly people with expensive homes will not be adversely affected because their income may have dropped in retirement.
Mr Greene, who got more votes than any other candidate in the boroughwide elections in 2006 and is still well remembered by Hampstead residents, said: “If this is going to be some kind of perverse wealth tax, why not call it a wealth tax?
“It is just designed to attract a few extra votes while hitting people like me.” |
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