Tories hit back at ‘toffs job’ taunt
Last updated at 14:35, Friday, 08 January 2010
TORY parliamentary hopefuls have reacted angrily to a union’s taunt about having “toffs” jobs.
GMB claims all the Conservative candidates in Cumbria at the next general election are from the top three professional groups.
And it says none represent the six lower occupational sectors that employs more than half the UK workforce.
The union singles out Barrow and Furness candidate John Gough (IT contractor), Copeland candidate Christopher Whiteside (manager) and Westmorland and Lonsdale candidate Gareth McKeever (investment banker).
Paul Kenny, GMB general secretary, says Tory candidates remain wholly unrepresentative of the majority of the workforce of the north west.
He said: “These are not people who operate in the real world. It is alarming they still come from such a thin and well-heeled layer of our society.
“This is about the privileged seeking formal control of the country.
“Perhaps we should widen all MPs’ experience by forcing them to take real jobs in public transport, in hospitality and in the NHS and they can see what life is like from the other side of the counter.”
Mr Gough told the Evening Mail the GMB statement was nothing more than an attack on individuals – and also completely wrong in his particular case.
He said: “Even though I personally don’t think that a person’s background has any relevance in whether they can do the job, I will take this opportunity to set the record straight.
“I went to a comp, I was the first in my family to go to university, I work full-time because if I didn’t we wouldn’t have a roof over our head.
“I am a qualified accountant and work for myself with no sick pay, no pension, no long-term job security and I have to find a new job at the end of each contract.
“I work under contract because I resigned from my previous job to be a candidate.
“I have worked in the private and public sectors, for over 20 years as an accountant but also as a scuba diving instructor, as well as summer jobs when at university as a hospital cleaner.”
Mr Gough also points out his son goes to a state school and was born in an NHS hospital.
He added: “To say I am not representative is laughable and insulting to everyone who tries hard to make a living.
“Everything I have achieved is through sticking at schooling, hard work and a supportive family and nothing else.
“What this shows is that the real people out of touch with reality are the GMB and not this Tory candidate.
“Why don’t they ask the same questions to the Labour candidates, just how representative are they?”
Mr Whiteside says he is a BT employee working in Whitehaven and usually describes himself as an economist – although his current formal title is project manager.
He said: “I would add that I do not have a particularly privileged background, my mother was a teacher and my father a middle-rank ICI researcher.
“I went to state primary schools and a secondary school which at the time was a direct grant school.”
The Copeland candidate says it is in the best interests of both Cumbria and the rest of Britain, that arguments about who should win the next election should be based on the policies which candidates support, and their experience of life and of public service.
He added: “It is not in anyone’s interest to argue on the basis of class war or hatred of success.
“Are the GMB arguing that it is a bad thing that local Conservative candidates have been successful in our working careers?
“If they think they’re helping the Labour party by taking that line, they may find that it goes down as badly as the ‘toffs’ argument did at the Crewe and Nantwich by-election.
“Most people want to have opportunities in their working lives and even more so for their children.
“The idea that nobody should have the right to better themselves or that people should be attacked for succeeding has no place in the 21st century.”
Mr McKeever points out he was in financial services advising on Japanese investments – not investment banking.
He added: “For the last two years I have been working with a children’s charity for young carers as a trustee and volunteer.
“I have 10 years experience succeeding in the real world and at a time when there are too many professional politicians this can only be a good thing.”
First published at 12:55, Friday, 08 January 2010
Published by http://www.nwemail.co.uk
Mr. Kenny's comments are reminiscent of Arthur Scargill and 'Red' Robbo, making him sound slighty foolish and exceptionally petty.
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Mr Kenny seems to have forgotten that most of the Government front bench are not representative of the six lower occupational sectors either.How many are lawyers or privately educated including 'Teflon Tony',(own goal'springs to mind).
'Gorbals Mick'may have been a manual worker
but he represented one of the poorest & most deprived areas of Glasgow for which he did little in his entire 34 years as their MP.
I was once a member of the Labour Party & voted doggedly for them since Hugh Gaitskill was leader until 1997 when I expected a radical change.It never happened,they out Toried the Tories.I will never vote for them again.
Posted by wbrown on 16 January 2010 at 22:00