A FORMER Conservative MP has taken a swipe at his Labour successor over a letter meant for him which he says was sent to another constituent.
Mark Jenkinson, the former Workington MP, said he made representations on the winter fuel allowance to Josh MacAlister, who is now the MP for Whitehaven and Workington.
Mr MacAlister was one of 348 MPs who voted in favour of government plans to restrict winter fuel payments to only the poorest pensioners in Westminster this week.
Mr Jenkinson has since published a letter addressed to him from Mr MacAlister on social media which he says was sent to another constituent.
He has also shared a screenshot of an email sent between Mr MacAlister’s MP and private email accounts, which says: “Either we ignore him or we send a ROBUST response.”
Mr Jenkinson says this is referring to the representations he made to Mr MacAlister on the winter fuel allowance.
In the letter, Mr MacAlister says he hopes Mr Jenkinson is ‘adjusting to life outside of Parliament’, before going on to say: “It is disappointing but not surprising that you continue to behave out of office as you did in office.
“The difficult choices faced by the Labour government are a direct result of the reckless spending and wanton profligacy of the government you served in as a Whip.
“What we need from you and your party is some humility, some contrition and, above all, an apology – to the people of West Cumbria and the whole country – for the absolutely shambolic state you left this country and its public services in after fourteen years in government.
“You backed Liz Truss for Prime Minister, who subsequently crashed the economy, pushed up prices to eye watering levels for families and pensioners and created a cost of living crisis so severe we’re still living with the consequences.
“You then served in the government of Rishi Sunak, who broke every promise he made to the country, oversaw the near collapse of our NHS, failed to deliver the funding we need to upgrade the crumbling Cumbrian coastline and dithered and delayed on new nuclear to the point where I am now at the eleventh hour frantically trying to save the future of nuclear in west Cumbria.”
Mr Jenkinson told the Times & Star: “Given his public admission that hundreds of constituents are waiting on a response from him, I’m surprised Mr Macalister found the time to pen such politically-motivated nonsense which abuses the use of the House of Commons portcullis. We hear he was a teacher, but it can’t have been of history.
“I’m also surprised he doubled down on lies about new nuclear, as an example, given his own nuclear minister has just confirmed that all his pronouncements about ‘roadblocks’ and lack of access to land have been untrue - until Ed Miliband came to be in charge of it, at least.”
The office of Josh MacAlister declined to comment.
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