Bristol West MP enabled constituent to be evicted

bristol | local government | opinion/analysis Friday March 08, 2013 00:34 by Guido Fawkes

Stephen Williams MP for Bristol West (LibDem) tries to pass muster as a fluffy sort of guy, who just happens to be part of a coalition of austerity fanatics, whom he follows blindly. Stephen Williams made his pre-parliamentary career as a 'chartered tax adviser' to conglomerate financial outscourcers such as PriceWaterhouseCoopers, implicated in the 2008 crash.

In 2012, Mr Williams phoned the BCC housing department to complain that one of his constituents had not been paid his full housing benefit and had been evicted, and Mr Williams in no uncertain terms wanted to know why. He demanded an immediate response from the council housing staff and a reinstatement of full housing benefit for his constituent.

It turned out that this was a result of an austerity law passed in Westminster, where the threshold age for full housing benefit had been increased from 25 years old to 35. And it so happened that Mr Williams had in fact voted for this same legislation, as BCC staff were able to point out to him when they phoned him back. This incident is on record at BCC.

One wonders how many of his constituents on incapacity benefit have been struck off under benefit reforms he voted for as well, as the BEP announced in November that the figure was 7000 for the whole of the city. We can only hope that none have been driven to commit suicide.

Just to let you know the sort of MP who is representing you lucky Bristol Westers.