Leicester’s Three TUSC Parliamentary Candidates Issue Challenge to Other Parties

The publication of the Sunday Times Rich List just last weekend once again highlighted the growing gap that exists between the super-rich and the majority of the people of Leicester. The Rich List highlights how over the last year the richest 1,000 people have seen a £28 billion rise in the wealth they control.

Heather Rawling TUSC parliamentary candidate for Leicester West said:

“This Rich List puts the lie to the establishment parties, who continue with their austerity promises telling us there is no alternative but cuts to our jobs and our services and that low-paying jobs are the best we can hope for.

“That’s why TUSC stands for something completely different to all the major parties. TUSC demands an end cuts and austerity, and we fight for democratic public ownership of our NHS, railways, public services, utilities and banks.”

There is a crisis of political representation in this country, and trust for politicians of all parties is at an all-time low. Revelations of MP’s offering their ‘services’ to company’s wanting to gain influence will have sickened many, almost as much as the revelations around MPs expenses over the past few years.

TUSC’s Leicester South candidate Andrew Walton explained:

“Tory grandee, Sir Malcolm Rifkind, complained that MP’s basic salary wasn’t enough. Yet while their basic salary is £67,000, nearly quarter of people in Leicester earn less then the already inadequate living wage of £7.85 an hour.

“Most MP’s are totally disconnected from the insecure world of work that is overshadowed by poverty pay with zero hours or temporary contracts. This is why all of Leicester’s TUSC parliamentary candidates have pledged to stand as workers’ MP’s on a workers wage! Taking no more than the average skilled wage in Leicester, of around £22,000 a year, and giving the rest to strike funds, community campaigns, local unions and working class organisations.

“We encourage all of the other political representatives standing in Leicester to do the same, lets see how many of them accept that challenge!”

This challenge to take a workers wage was first issued to all Leicester’s parliamentary candidates last Thursday in a press release sent to the Leicester Mercury. A challenge which was then repeated at the following nights General Election political hustings for Leicester East hopefuls by TUSC candidate Michael Barker.