Karen Buck, local Labour MP commenting on revelations that the Tories have been trying to run a joint mayoral candidate with the Lib Dems said:

“Talks between David Cameron’s Tories and Ming Campbell’s Lib Dems over running a joint candidate for Mayor show that the Tories are incapable of running even their own party let alone London. The Tories and Liberal Democrats have totally contradictory policies. The Tories oppose free travel for under-18 on the buses and the Liberal Democrats support it; the Liberal Democrats support congestion charging and the Tories oppose it. The chaos in the Tory selection for Mayor reflects the fact that this party has no coherent positive policies for taking London forward.

‘What this shows is that whoever is eventually selected as Conservative Party candidate for Mayor has absolutely no confidence from the Tory leadership.”

Karen Buck backs calls for automatic Council Tax rebates for pensioners receiving Pension Credit, and for better information sharing to improve take up of Council Tax benefit.

The parliamentary motion, which has all party support, states:

That this House welcomes the recognition by Sir Michael Lyons that the take up of council tax benefit by pensioners is appalling; notes with alarm that the number of pensioners failing to claim council tax benefit is increasing with only half receiving the entitlement and over £1.8 billion going unclaimed; further notes that the Lyons Report reinforces the proposals outlined in both the Council Tax (Entitlement) Bill and the Council Tax Benefit (Entitlement Information) Bill, which received all party support in 2005 and 2006, and that both these bills and the Lyons Report contain the view that the administrative barriers to claiming should be removed with more data sharing with a joined-up system between local authorities, the Pension Service and central Government; further believes that the onus should be on central Government to identify eligible pensioners, with the long-term aim of an automatic rebate for pensioners in receipt of pension credit; and calls on the Government to adopt the recommendations made by the Lyons Report, the Council Tax (Entitlement) Bill and the Council Tax Benefit (Entitlement Information) Bill instead of pursuing more well-meaning but uninspiring and ineffective publicity campaigns.

Karen Buck welcomes the grant of quarter of a million pounds by Ken Livingstone’s London Development Agency to develop community sports towards the 2012 Olympics by the London Tigers.

For far too long, sports provision for young people in Westminster lagged behind neighbouring boroughs, and indeed inner London has historically lagged behind the rest of the country. Now, thanks to major investment by organisations like Sport England and the Youth Sports Trust and the energy of community providers and a dedicated team in the local Sports Unit, things are improving greatly. This grant to London Tigers will increase the range of sporting opportunities still further, especially for youngsters from the most deprived communities. Unfortunately, we still have issues of access to Regent’s Sport and facilities like Paddington Rec, and I am continuing to fight for improvements in this area, to allow our community and voluntary organisations to flourish.