Chris Ruane is the former Labour MP for the Vale of Clwyd, losing his seat in this General Election. It was a seat created in the General Election of 1997. He had been the MP there since that time but Conservative GP James Davies took it by just 237 votes on 7 May.
In June 2011, Peter Hain had cited the Vale of Clwyd as a “beacon” example of where Labour members had forged links deep into the community which had helped the party at election time.
As evidence, in the 2010 election Chris Ruane’s share of the vote fell by only 3.6%. Hain said “these constituencies have transformed themselves to become community organisations as well as political parties.”
http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/peter-hain-labour-must-abandon-1829313
Shame about that then. In 2015 the Labour vote share fell by a further 3.9% while the Tory vote increased by 3.8%. Result: Tory win, Labour loss. Looks like that beacon malfunctioned.
---------------------------------------------------------
Chris Ruane has now been asked to be a member of a Labour task force launched to learn the lessons of the Party’s defeat in the May election.
http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/labour-asks-former-welsh-mp-9361783
Mr Ruane and fellow members of the task force are charged with looking “over the edge of the precipice” in order to find out why voters rejected Ed Miliband’s Party.
---------------------------------------------------------
Chris Ruane has come to my attention before. In that infamous year (2012/2013) of Peter Hain's energy bills of nearly £4.6K, Ruane was the only MP in a Welsh constituency who cost the taxpayer more than Hain for his expenses, including staffing costs for his offices. Ruane cost us £190K, Hain cost £183K. An MP's salary that year was £65,738, which of course you can add to these costs to get the total bill for these MPs' services.
And just like Hain, Ruane (do they rhyme?) wasn't shy when it came to employing his own family. In that financial year he lists a "connected party" as a part time office manager on a salary of £20K to £25K a year. It was his wife, incidentally. Oh, and let's not forget a couple of other little things that set him apart from probably many of his constituents. On the MPs Register of Financial Interests he listed in 2013 a flat in Portugal, PLUS one in London from which rental income was obtained. Yet curiously enough the taxpayer forked out over £1.9K a month for him to rent accommodation, also in London. So the man had property in London that he owned (or was buying), yet he received rental income for that while we picked up a tab of nearly £2K a month for him to doss down somewhere else. That's right - it's all within the Rules!
---------------------------------------------------------
Wikipedia entry:
In October 2012, the Commons Speaker, John Bercow, blocked the release of data showing which MPs were renting their homes in London to other MPs for financial gain. However, a study of parliamentary records was published in the Daily Telegraph.[3] The study showed that 27 MPS, including Chris Ruane[4] receive rental income from their homes in London while simultaneously claiming rental income from the taxpayer to live at another residence.
Ruane claimed £1,906 a month for his London flat. ..............He also owns a flat about three minutes’ walk away. He said: “I have acted completely within the rules.”[5]
---------------------------------------------------------
THE LIST OF 27
David Amess, Southend West, Conservative; Clive Betts, Sheffield South East, Labour; Chris Bryant, Rhondda, Labour; Aidan Burley, Cannock Chase, Conservative; Andy Burnham, Leigh, Labour; William Cash, Stone, Conservative; Damian Collins, Folkestone and Hythe, Conservative; David Crausby, Bolton North East, Labour; Ian Davidson, Glasgow South West, Labour; Philip Davies, Shipley, Conservative; Don Foster, Bath, Liberal Democrat; Liam Fox, North Somerset, Conservative; George Freeman, Mid Norfolk, Conservative; Robert Goodwill, Scarborough and Whitby, Conservative; Nick Harvey, North Devon, Liberal Democrats; Stephen Hepburn, Jarrow, Labour; Charles Kennedy, Ross, Skye and Lochaber, Liberal Democrats; Jessica Lee, Erewash, Conservative; Peter Luff, Mid Worcestershire, Conservative; Anne Marie Morris, Newton Abbot, Conservative; Meg Munn, Sheffield Heeley, Labour; Jim Murphy, East Renfrewshire, Labour; Angus Robertson, Moray, SNP; Chris Ruane, Vale of Clwyd, Labour; Jon Trickett, Hemsworth, Labour; Andrew Turner, Isle of White, Conservative; Ben Wallace, Wyre and Preston North, Conservative.
Some very interesting names among the above. Chris Bryant, Andy Burnham, Liam Fox, Charles Kennedy, Meg Munn and Jim Murphy are names well known to many.
----------------------------------------------------------------
That's not all. Amongst Mr Ruane's expenses' claims for 2012/2013 and 2013/2014 you'll find gems like claiming £1.35 for a three mile trip in his car, plus something called "hospitality" under office expenses - where you'll find claims such as £4.81, £4.50 and £4.00 for coffee and tea. And don't forget - not everyone likes it black - so let's throw in a claim of £1.36 for milk FFS!! You know, if I was on a salary of £66K, then employing my wife with public money, and I had a flat in London I was renting out while claiming nearly £2K a month to rent elsewhere (all within the rules of course), plus a bolthole in Portugal, I could NEVER have the gall to claim £4 odd for office tea - let alone £1.36 for milk. It's just mind boggling. They are definitely a different breed to most of us, these MPs.
So, my message to Mr Ruane and the Labour Party is this. I am sure there will be many, many reasons you will come up with that contributed to Labour's downfall. But among them, perhaps you ought to take into consideration some of the facts and figures set out above. Because when you lose a seat by just 237 votes, just 119 votes shifting from Tory to Labour would have made all the difference. How do you know there weren't 119 such voters who turned away from Mr Ruane because they, like me, picked up on what is written above?
UPDATE 2.6.15
Very sad news this morning about the untimely death of Charles Kennedy. Some excellent tributes to him and his work are being broadcast as I write.
