Next branch meeting Wednesday 6 June 2012

The next branch meeting is scheduled for 8.00pm Wednesday 6 June 2012.

For more information on the venue and agenda email the Branch Secretary for more information. sruislipandmanorlp@blueyonder.co.uk

Hillingdon Labour oppose Day Care cuts

Hillingdon Labour Group have expressed their full support for the parents, carers and service users in their campaign against the closure of Day Care Centres in the borough.  Lawyers representing the families of severely disabled adults in Hillingdon are taking legal action in the High Court to stop the closure of three day care centres.

In a recent statement to the press the Council said

“The proposed changes will enable service users to have more choice and independence through offering care and support tailored to their needs”.

Hillingdon Labour Councillors fundamentally disagree with the Council's closure programme because they recognise that such closures result in less choice for disabled residents by removing the option for the purchase of the centre’s tailored services with the scheme of personal budgets that now fund services for severely disabled people.


A recent report on ITV's London Tonight programme highlighted the problems that the users and their carers will face if the Council's plans for closure go ahead. 

Far from putting residents first this move is driven by the financial savings achieved by the day centre closures, which were identified in the 2010 draft of the 2011 budget.  Labour’s proposed amendments to the 2012 budget were financially neutral and included the retention of Woodside day centre but this was rejected by the Conservatives.

Cllr Peter Curling, Labour Group Leader said “People with serious disabilities now have personal budgets so that they and their carers can choose what services they wish purchase to meet their specific needs.  I therefore find it a bizarre move for the council to stifle this choice by closing the day care centres which already provide the tailored support that many people with severe disabilities and their carers wish to purchase.”

Cllr John Major, Labour Lead on Social Services, Health & Housing, added “The closure of the day cares centres is something that I had feared for some time.  In 2010 I raised a question regarding what was meant when the council put forward a package of savings described as, A modern approach to enable choice to change delivery from a traditional approach, to supporting people to access more community services. When I sought clarification on this it was confirmed that this was connected to the closure of day centres.

New Hillingdon Labour Group Leader first statement

Councillor Peter Curling

On 8 May 2012 Councillor Peter Curling, one of three Labour ward Councillors for Townfield, was elected Leader of the Hillingdon Labour Group. A few days later Councillor Curling wrote for the Uxbridge Gazette:

"For every day since this Tory led Government took office, 625 public service jobs have been axed bringing untold hardship to countless families. On 3^rd of May we saw people throughout the country go to the polls and express their deep dis-satisfaction with the Tory led Government resulting in Labour making huge gains up and down the country.  The London Mayoral result came down to the big “marmite” personalities of Ken & Boris, rather than the usual party politics and the Boris Bounce was just enough to push him back into the Mayoralty, more a victory for “Boris” brand than an endorsement of the Conservatives.

The election of the GLA Assembly Members saw Labour overturn a 28,000 Tory majority here in Ealing and Hillingdon where Dr Onkar Sahota replaced the former Deputy Mayor, Richard Barnes.  The London-wide party list candidates also saw a huge swing to Labour.  This now means that although Boris is the Mayor of London, the assembly has a majority of Labour members. Unfortunately it’s not the two thirds majority required to kerb the Mayor’s actions or amend the Mayor’s budget, but it does mean that there are more Labour members on the assembly to scrutinise and hold the Mayor to account.

Looking at local issues I am sure that a significant factor to the swing to Labour in Ealing & Hillingdon was the government’s plans to close Ealing Hospital as part of the top down reorganisation of the NHS that David Cameron specifically promised not to do.  So how fitting it is that the winning Labour candidate is a Doctor who is committed to supporting and defending the NHS. Labour is the only party that supports our great British institutions, like the NHS, the only party who will keep our public services public.

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Labour campaigning to save Ealing Hospital

The Tory led coalition abandoned their mantra of “we’re all in it together” (if we ever believed it!) when they decided to cut the tax of the wealthiest and richest in our society whilst mercilessly cutting benefits and life-lines to some of the poorest and most vulnerable.  They have reverted to type and taken a deeply unfair approach to our economic problems, their policies of tax cuts for the rich and increasing the burden on the poor have clearly failed.

The recent elections have sent a strong message to the government; The country has had enough of Tory austerity, of out of touch and no hope policies that have dragged us back into recession.  We want to prove that in tough times you can depend on Labour to fight for you, we will put residents first and we are determined to prove that in the coming months.

Stunning victory for Labour GLA candidate

Newly elected GLA member
Dr Onkar Sahota

Dr Onkar Sahota has made local history by winning the Ealing and Hillingdon seat for the London Assembly for the Labour Party for the first time.

Labour’s Dr Sahota defeated Conservative Councillor  Richard Barnes by 3,110 votes, overturning a majority of 28,638.

 Dr Sahota, an Ealing GP and Hayes resident, said: "We have had a mountain to climb but we fought a good campaign."

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Candidate name	Party	Votes	Votes %	Majority
Onkar Sahota	Labour Party	65,584	40.04	3,110
Richard Barnes	Conservative Party	62,474	38.14
Michael Cox	London Liberal Democrats	11,805	7.21
Mike Harling	Green Party	10,877	6.64
Helen Louise Knight	Fresh Choice for London (UKIP)	6,750	4.12
David Furness	British National Party	4,284	2.62
Ian Edward	National Front Putting Londoners First	2,035	1.24
Source: London Elects	Total number of good votes	163,809	100.00

The defeated Conservative Councillor Richard Barnes, had been the GLA member for Ealing and Hillingdon for 12 years and was Boris Johnson’s Statutory Deputy Mayor from  2008 until 2012. He continues to be a L.B. Hillingdon Councillor for the Harefield ward.

Unfortunately Ken Livingstone, after a hard fought campaign, narrowly failed to regain the London Mayoralty for Labour.