Fantasy claims in Lab/Tory leaflets means they're worried

Oh dear, oh dear - the Labour and Tory parties are both clearly terrified that the Greens are going to win the Highgate by-election this Thursday.

In their leaflets Labour claim to have saved Highgate Library but they've cut the budget by more than 50% and have given the community a year to find someone to share the space. The Camden Public Library Users Group (CPLUG) say there's still a substantial risk that Highgate Library will be closed.

Labour also claim to have saved the Highgate Safer Neighbourhood Police Team Sergeant when other wards in Camden are being forced to share. But Labour's Cabinet Member for Community Safety recently wrote to all Camden councillors to say that the council had had absolutely no influence over which police teams kept their sergeants. It was, he said, "solely a police decision". The Borough Police Commander has said the same. The Chair of the Highgate Safer Neighbourhood Panel is reported to be apoplectic about the Labour claims.

Labour also sent a letter to Holly Lodge residents saying they'd saved the Community Centre and Family Centre there. It's true that the £200,000 that was earmarked for rebuilding the Family Centre, which Labour was going to take away, has now been confirmed. Cllr Maya de Souza worked long and hard with residents to lobby the last Camden administration to fund a community-designed building so we’re delighted that, after months of uncertainty, the work can now begin. It may have taken the spotlight of a by-election to achieve this Labour u-turn, but the important thing is that the project is safe. Yet Labour-led Camden Council has cut the core funding for the Holly Lodge Community Centre, which may force it to close. Holly Lodge residents have now felt obliged to put up posters on the estate giving the facts about what has happened rather than the fantasy which is in Labour leaflets.

And now the Tories are getting in on the fantasy leaflet act. Their latest "newsletter" claims that "if the Green candidate is elected in Highgate, he will have no right to speak at Council meetings." This, they claim, is because "a political party must have three elected councillors to earn these rights."

That is mendacious nonsense. The rules are that if a party has more than one councillor then they constitute a group and that would give us the right to speak on all issues. Indeed the Greens have been here before - in 2006 when two Greens were elected in Highgate they were a formal group on Camden Council.

What these negative tactics show is that both Labour and the Tories are worried that the Greens are going to win the Highgate by-election on Thursday. Our pledge is that we will stay positive to the end. We Greens are not in politics for petty point scoring and we won't spread lies in an attempt to win. We're in it because we have strong principles and we because want to make a difference. It's a question of trust.