MP’s bedroom tax demo at Chequers

PROTEST . . .from left, MPs David Winnick, Michael Meacher and Kelvin Hopkins outside Chequers

OLDHAM MP Michael Meacher staged a protest against the so-called bedroom tax outside the Prime Minister’s country home.

Mr Meacher, MP for Oldham West and Royton, joined Labour colleagues outside Chequers in Buckinghamshire.

He said: “The bedroom tax is having a devastating effect on many families in Oldham. Over 3,000 households are affected.

“My protest is to send the message to the Coalition Government that it is persecuting the poorest and most vulnerable in our society. Many of these tenants have lived in their homes for many years and have brought their families up in them. They have little option to move but there are no smaller properties available and they can’t afford the costs of moving.

“The changes unfair, immoral and incompetent, and that is why I have opposed them at every stage in Parliament.

“How can it be fair that people who have specialist medical equipment in their home will be affected, couples who can’t share a bedroom for medical reasons will be affected, separated parents who share custody of their children are affected, which could lead to further family breakdown, people doing their best to find work are affected and children aged under 11 will have to share a bedroom.”

Mr Meacher and his colleagues delivered a letter to Chequers that said: “We have come to protest at the unjust and cruelly vindictive bedroom tax which you have imposed on 660,000 households in publicly rented housing across the country.”