MP accuses council Labour Party of 'playing silly games' over 'part-timer' accusations

Alexander Stafford, who was elected as Tory MP for Rother Valley in December, is also a councillor in Ealing, West London, and was photographed at a meeting in the area last night by opposition Labour councillor Lewis Cox.

Mr Cox accused Mr Stafford of being a “part-time MP” but Mr Stafford hit back and said he had made it clear he was standing down in March, six weeks before the Greater London Assembly election which is due to be held in May, to save the council money through not having to hold a separate poll.

And he said he also wanted to finish off case work.

He said: “I will be resigning in March. The reason I’m doing that is it would cost £40,000 for a by-election and in the meantime I'm not the sort of person to cut and run [on previous commitments].

“Yesterday I was in the House of Commons, I raised a question about Dinnington College which is threatened with closure and I had a vote at 7pm, I was there [at the meeting] in the evening after that.

“I left home at 7.40 yesterday morning and I got home about 11pm last night.”

Mr Stafford said he spent Friday to Sunday in the constituency and the rest of his week in Parliament, adding he had just placed a holding deposit on a constituency home.

“It’s local elections coming up and they’re playing silly games,” he said. “And let’s be honest, they’re sore losers.”

But Mr Cox said: “How do you represent two constituencies at the same time? I think it’s really unfair on the people of Rother Valley.”

Labour leader of Ealing Council Julian Bellpreviously said: “Ealing residents deserve better than absent Tory councillors taking public money.”

However Ealing Conserative group leader Gregory Stafford, who is also Alexander Stafford’s brother, said in a tweet: “A standalone council by-election costs between £25 and £40k each.

“Rather than cost Ealing taxpayers up to £80,000 we will hold those by-elections on the same day as an already scheduled set of elections.”