News story

25th March 2001

General Election timing

As speculation mounts about a possible announcement, Northavon MP Steve Webb has told local residents that the Prime Minister should not even be contemplating calling an Election in the middle of the Foot and Mouth Crisis. The MP was speaking at an open meeting at Poole Court at Yate last week, and said that all of the Government’s energies should be devoted to tackling the present crisis. He pointed out that there does not need to be a General Election for another year, and that the Government has a huge majority in the House of Commons which means it has no problems with getting its business through. He said that he was, of course, ready to fight a campaign as soon as an Election was called, but that now was clearly not the right time.

Steve Webb said:

“I think that most people would think it quite wrong for the Prime Minister to be devoting his energies to fighting an unnecessary election, when he should instead be concentrating on fighting Foot and Mouth. The Government is clearly already struggling to keep on top of the Crisis, and this would be bound to be made much worse if ministers spent the next month away from Whitehall going around the country trying to garner votes. I believe that the Prime Minister would gain the respect of people of all political persuasions if he said now that there will be no Election until this situation is under control”.



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