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Labour believes MP’s position is now ‘weak’
by Chris Hudson5/ 3/2008
MACCLESFIELD’S Labour Party has stated they believe Sir Nicholas Winterton’s position is weak following the controversy over our internet poll conducted into the revelations over his London residence.
Our story regarding irregularities in our web vote gained regional and national coverage appearing on both BBC North West Tonight and in The Mail On Sunday.
The media latched on to the Express’s story after we revealed that the internet vote with the question: "Do you think Sir Nick Winterton has done anything wrong in the current storm over his expenses?" was fiddled.
Click here to see a report on the vote-rigging storm from BBC Northwest Tonight
Originally web voters placed Sir Nick with a staggering 84 per cent of the vote in his favour.
But after multiple voting was discovered by our IT wizards, a recount revealed that 71pc of Maxonians thought he had done wrong.
One computer user was found to have voted a time-consuming 122 times.
Fiona Wilson, chairman of the Macclesfield Labour Party, said: "The attempt by Winterton’s supporters to distort the poll adds to the immorality of the situation.
"Wintertons’ failure to comment underlines how weak his position is.
"The electorate who supported him in the past must be bitterly disappointed."
And the situation doesn’t look like going away very quickly as the Standards Commissioner’s office could not say how long the investigation into his London home scandal would take.
The Express looked at similar cases the Commissioner had examined, the most recent being the investigation into MP Derek Conway.
Following a complaint regarding Mr Conway’s conduct on June 3, 2007, the inquiry finished seven months later in February this year.
An investigation in 2003 against Labour MP Clive Betts also took approximately six months to complete.
As such, the conclusion of the Winterton investigation looks set to be done and dusted sometime in the summer.
This will coincide with the conclusion of the inquiry into MPs’ expenses ordered by Speaker Michael Martin.
Most recent 2 of 8 user comments
Is it because he lives abroad? Is it your belief that anyone who has left Macclesfield, when brought up here, cannot comment on the town's issues?
Funny, the usual definition of a 'troll' focuses not on the characteristics that SC shows, but on the attributes that you yourself have.
10/03/2008 at 17:38
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Still waiting for an answer to my last question - please reply - i promise to go easy on you......
11/03/2008 at 02:22