Westminster deserves better than a "lacklustre" MP
July 28, 2006 6:25 PM
Mark Field's MP's activity levels in Parliament are facing criticism
Local Liberal Democrats are condemning the "lacklustre" parliamentary activity levels of Mark Field, the MP for Cities of London and Westminster.
Over the past year, the Tory MP has spoken in the House of Commons on average barely more than once a month, asked a written parliamentary question less than once a week and missed more than a quarter of Commons votes, according to the independent theyvoteforyou.com website.
Commenting, local Liberal Democrat Stuart Bonar said:
"The General Election was a little over a year ago and Parliament's summer break started this week, so it's a neat time to review the performance of MPs. When we put Mr Field under scrutiny however his record proved to be lacklustre at best, especially when compared to some of London's Liberal Democrat MPs.
"Mr Field spoke in just 14 debates in the Commons in the whole of the last 12 months, for example. Every one of London's LibDem MPs spoke in more debates and Simon Hughes managed an impressive 81 contributions.
"Also Mr Field received answers to just 50 written questions in the last year. Again, every one of the LibDem MPs in London did better than this. Most prolific was Twickenham's LibDem MP, Vince Cable, who received answers to 707 questions. That was more than 14 times as many.
"And Mr Field attended just 74% of votes in the House of Commons, which means that he missed more than one in every four votes. LibDem MP for Brent East, Sarah Teather, voted on 83% of occasions.
"Mr Field has no excuse for not having a better voting record given that the House of Commons is actually in his constituency! Take someone like Dan Rogerson, the Liberal Democrat MP for North Cornwall - he managed to vote more often than Mr Field despite the fact that his constituency is hundreds of miles from the Commons."
"Mr Field's majority is actually quite modest. If he doesn't pull his socks up and start to work a lot harder then why should local people re-elect him? He could certainly lose his seat next time."
The performance of all MPs and members of the House of Lords can be checked online at the independent theyworkforyou.com website.
What would you like to do next?
-
Subscribe for updates
Follow the party's activity on...
- Twitter:
- Liberal Democrats
- Facebook:
- Liberal Democrats
- YouTube:
- Liberal Democrats