PRIME MINISTER MISSES THE POINT

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Thu 12th Jul 2007

Colin Breed

Cornwall's five Liberal Democrat MPs have expressed their disappointment at Gordon Brown's response to their invitation to come and see the problems that need to be addressed in Cornwall. The two sentence letter thanked the MPs for their 'kind offer' but failed completely to acknowledge the issues of great concern to the Cornish MPs and the Cornish people.

The original letter, that welcomed the Prime Minister to his office, asked him to come and witness the problems faced by the Cornish people such as housing and child poverty. The response from Downing Street acknowledged the invitation but failed to take any account of the issues concerning the MPs and further failed to commit to any visit.

Colin Breed MP for South East Cornwall said:-

"This is not a great start to the relations between the new PM and the Cornish people. Yesterday he outlined his plans for the coming Parliament stressing; Education, Health and Housing, if there is anywhere in the country where he could come and witness just how pressing these issues are then it is surely Cornwall. The differential between average wage and average house price is the highest in the country, our health services are dealing with a mountain of debt and many of our schools need repaired or rebuilt."

"These are issues that need to be seriously recognised and addressed by our new PM - a two line non-committal response is not encouraging."

Julia Goldsworthy MP for Falmouth and Camborne added:-

"It is very disappointing that the new Prime Minister has failed to commit himself to visiting Cornwall. Our county is unique and often gets neglected by policymakers based in London.

"If Gordon Brown is serious about tackling issues such as child poverty, he should come to Cornwall and see for himself the financial burden placed on hardworking families as a result of lowest wages and the highest water bills in the country."

ENDS