Oldham MP Michael Meacher has launched a vicious attack on Conservatives after they created a website showing criticism of Labour leader Ed Miliband – from his own party.
The Conservative Party have tried to create divisions among the Labour ranks today with the Just Not Up To It site featuring quotations from the politicians taking issue with Miliband’s policies and leadership abilities.
And Meacher hit back at claims he had allegedly labelled Labour’s railway plans as ‘mystifying’ – describing the allegations as ‘completely untrue’.
The Labour MP told MM: “I haven’t criticised Ed Miliband and I don’t believe anything written on the Conservative website.”
Meacher appeared baffled by claims he had laid into his leader and described such tactics as ‘an upsetting part of politics’.
However, he reserved stinging criticism for the Tory Party, dismissing the website for its ‘lying, using deceiving and selective quotes’.
Blackley’s Graham Stringer, Rochdale MP Simon Danczuk and Wigan’s Lisa Nandy are all targeted as well as Michael Meacher of Oldham and even Leigh’s Shadow Health Secretary Andy Burnham.
The site features an interactive map charting Labour MPs’ comments and plots them based on where they occurred in the UK.
“Ed is behind in the personality stakes… but we’re also behind on economic policy,” said Labour MP for Blackley & Broughton Stringer, who is featured three times on the site.
“The centrepiece of our campaign has been the cost of living, and yet Ed did not know his own cost of living when he went into it, he didn’t know how much he was spending on shopping. That sort of thing is unforgivably unprofessional.”
Stringer is also reported to have criticised the ‘lack of coherence and cogency of Labour’s policy’.
Another Greater Manchester parliamentarian to feature is Burnham, who is quoted to have said: “There is a big hurdle in front of us…the Labour position on Europe and immigration.”
Burnham, who called on Prime Minister David Cameron to halt is NHS privatisation plans in a speech in Manchester this morning, is also reported to have said: “There’s definitely a need to shout louder.”
Danczuk didn’t escape the Tory ears either and he is quoted as claiming ‘the party’s been hijacked by a metropolitan elite’ in an obvious dig at privately educated and London-born Miliband.
In addition, Lisa Nandy, MP for Wigan, described Miliband’s leadership as ‘airy-fairy’.
The website has ignited debate on Twitter with Tory supporters using the hashtag #justnotuptoit to throw more punches at the Labour Party.
We can’t let an Ed Miliband-led Labour Party win the next election and get into power. They would take Britain backwards #justnotuptoit
— mar45 (@mar45) July 29, 2014
More than 50 Labour MPs appear on the website with words criticising Ed Miliband and that figure could increase.
The attack is a clear sign that pressure is building as both parties clamour to attract voters ahead of May’s General Election.
Labour currently lead the Conservatives by six points in the latest national polls.
Image courtesy of ITN via Youtube with thanks
