Cheated!

Photo: Picture: ANTHONY MILLER

PLAIN speaking... Nick Clegg (right) with Elwyn Watkins

1 More Image(s) In Gallery

Election 2011
Clegg’s verdict on Oldhamers’ treatment in botched poll Troubled Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg has slammed the actions of Phil Woolas during the General Election, saying Oldham voters were cheated the last time they went to the ballot box.

Speaking to Chronicle reporter Beatriz Ayala in an exclusive interview, Mr Clegg said he could not understand why neither Mr Woolas nor Labour leader Ed Miliband had not apologised.

Mr Clegg — today facing fresh revelations about his ministers’ private thoughts on leading Conservatives in the coalition — urged residents to vote for “plain talking, straight-forward” Lib-Dem candidate Elwyn Watkins in the January 13 Oldham East and Saddleworth by-election.

Mr Clegg said: “I’m here to support Elwyn in what is a really exciting by-election and an opportunity for the people of Oldham East and Saddleworth to choose an MP they want.

“Frankly, they were cheated last time.

“I’m so full of admiration for the way Elwyn, with true plain-spoken grit, took this case to the court.

“The court showed that his Labour opponent had basically lied and stirred up tensions in the local community.

“I don’t understand why Phil Woolas or indeed Ed Miliband have still not apologised for what happened because it really was way below even the lowest standards of politics.”

Mr Watkins said Mr Woolas owed an apology to the people he had lied to and called for the Labour party to take action against all the people involved in the previous campaign.

He said: “The Labour party should be taking action against all those people who were involved in the spreading of hatred, not just Mr Woolas.

“What has happened to people like Joe Fitzpatrick (Mr Woolas’s agent) and John Battye (Oldham councillor and part of the Woolas campaign team)?

“They were all laughing and joking about the leaflets.

“We don’t need stirring up of racial tensions in Oldham.

“It’s for the Labour party to decide what action should be taken internally.

“It has now been three months since the leaflets were revealed in open court and apart from Harriet Harman suspending Phil Woolas immediately, they have taken no action. I’m happy to call for action to be taken against them.”

Mr Clegg said he believed the Lib-Dems could win the by-election and Mr Watkins had shown himself to be authentic and true to his values.

He said the Labour party had created a huge mess and it would be a great pity if Oldham East and Saddleworth residents were represented by a party he said had shown itself as “not fit” to manage Britain’s economy.

When questioned about the Lib-Dems being criticised for U-turns on issues such as tuition fees, Mr Clegg said: “Only the Lib-Dems wanted to get rid of fees.

“Since no-one won the election, and we didn’t win the election, we clearly had to compromise.

“It was a compromise rather than a U-turn.”

He said in practice the coalition Government had created a system that was fair and made it cheaper and easier to go to university.

He added: “While we are saying the charges a university can charge might be going up, actually the repayments made by graduates will be going down.

“All graduates will pay less every month than they currently do, the majority of graduates will never have to pay back the full value of the loan.

“When people start to see the details and start looking beyond the misleading allegations made by Labour, they appreciate that what we’ve done is create a system that is really fair, cheaper and easier for people to go to university.

“Students will not pay a penny, you only pay well after you’ve left university and only then after you can afford to.

Mr Clegg said it was right to bring the date of the by-election forward as it was unfair that Oldham East and Saddleworth was not currently properly represented in parliament.

He said: “My message to Oldham Chronicle readers is that this is a simple decision as to who they will believe will stand up for the local area.

“Elwyn has already stood up for himself in terms of the most horrid lies and misrepresentation by Labour.

“A vote for Elwyn is a vote for plain-talking, straight-forward political representation.”