Ruislip & Eastcote & Northwood Gazette
Call for ‘greedy’ MPs to quit council seats
EALING Council’s leader is calling on two councillors to resign after they won seats in the House of Commons during December’s General Election.
Tory MPs Joy Morrissey and Alex Stafford are still serving as councillors in Ealing despite being elected as Members of Parliament to seats outside London.
Cllr Morrissey, who is a Hanger Hill councillor, won the Beaconsfield seat, and Cllr Stafford represents the Ealing Broadway ward as well as serving as the MP for Rother Valley in Yorkshire.
Cllr Morrissey has told parliament in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests that she will carry out 15 hours of council work a week, while Cllr Stafford has committed to just 10 hours a month for his council duties.
Cllr Stafford missed a council scrutiny committee meeting he was due to chair in January and had to be replaced by his vice chair.
Meanwhile in Rother Valley, 150 miles away from Ealing, the Rotherham Advertiser carried the headline “MP denies greedy jibe in row over his councillor role”.
Councillor Julian Bell, Labour leader of Ealing Council, said: “Alex Stafford and Joy Morrissey should have resigned as Ealing councillors as soon as they were elected as MPs for constituencies outside of Ealing.
“I was particularly shocked to find that Alex Stafford has pledged to spend a paltry 10 hours a month working for Ealing residents. This amounts to about £150 an hour, if he bothers to turn up! Stafford has already effectively abandoned the scrutiny committee he chairs and receives an allowance for. Ealing residents deserve better than absent Tory councillors taking public money. Cllrs Morrissey and Stafford must resign immediately and let local people elect new representatives.”