Engaging MP Sara deserves a bit of credit
HASLINGDEN MP Sara Britcliffe has found herself in hot water locally after trying to arrange a street surgery in Hyndburn at around the time the new, more contagious version of Covid-19 was being announced by the Government.
Normally sensible heads in local Labour circles, such as Graham Jones, the sitting Haslingden MP Ms Britcliffe beat a year ago, have been very publicly critical of her decision to try and hold the surgeries at a time when we’re supposed to be social distancing.
But to be fair to Ms Britcliffe, the devil is in the detail. Her invites to the street surgery - which involves knocking on doors where people wish to talk and then standing at a safe distance to do so - were sent out before the Government told us just how worrying the new strain of Covid-19 was.
And once that became clear, the street surgery was cancelled.
Ms Britcliffe has accused her Labour critics of playing politics, which is always quite a hollow accusation for any politician to make, as you don’t have to go back too far in the archives to find occasions when the same could be said about them.
But credit where it is due - an MP trying to keep people engaged in local issues which matter to people during a pandemic is something to be celebrated, and encouraged.