Stuart Bell: What has he been doing?

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What has he been doing? The Labour MP who hasn't held a surgery for 14 years
By Jason Groves
Last updated at 12:18 AM on 8th September 2011
Under pressure: Sir Stuart Bell may have to explain to senior Labour figures why he has not held a constituency surgery since 1997
A senior Labour MP was under fire last night after admitting he has not held a surgery for constituents for 14 years.
Sir Stuart Bell, veteran MP for Middlesbrough, was under pressure from the Labour hierarchy to explain himself following claims that constituents cannot contact him.
Most MPs hold local surgeries several times a month for constituents to discuss their problems.
Sir Stuart, 73, admits he has not held one since 1997 and unlike most MPs he also has no office in his constituency.
Sir Stuart, whose wife Margaret is paid £35,000 a year as his office manager, claims he is willing to meet constituents ‘by appointment’ if they contact his Westminster office.
But his local newspaper, the Middlesbrough Gazette, reported this week that it had called his office more than 100 times this summer without reply.
A Labour party spokesman said last night: ‘Ed Miliband and the Labour Party expect the highest standards from Labour representatives. It is totally unacceptable if the public cannot reach their MP.
‘A number of allegations have been raised and these will be discussed with Sir Stuart.’
Sir Stuart, who was answering calls last night, said he had discussed the situation with Labour’s chief whip Rosie Winterton and would be writing to Mr Miliband to explain his circumstances.
Family affair: Sir Stuart pays his wife Margaret £35,000 a year to work as his office manager
Sir Stuart has previously said he stopped holding surgeries after being physically threatened by a voter.
Yesterday he said his office had ‘no record’ of calls made by the local paper, and that not having an office in the town saved the taxpayer money.
He also insisted he was available to discuss his constituents’ problems.
He said: ‘It would be quite wrong for an MP not to be available to his constituents but that is not the case here. I do meet constituents by appointment.’

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... years.html

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No surgeries for 14 years - is Sir Stuart Bell Britain's laziest MP?
By Jonathan Brown
Thursday, 8 September 2011
Sir Stuart Bell has not held a constituency surgery in Middlesbrough for 14 years
On the boarded-up streets of Sir Stuart Bell's Middlesbrough constituency yesterday Donna Rutherford was in little doubt that the man charged with representing her and her community in Parliament was not one of them. "He has never walked these streets," said the 28-year-old bar worker, who believes – but can't be sure – she voted for him at the last election. "With a bald head and a suit he'd get beat up – he'd be battered," she added.
Locals living in the soon-to-be-demolished homes off Linthorpe Road say they put up with a daily tirade of abuse, begging, drinking and drugs. The area has among the lowest healthy life expectancy in Britain – just 55 years – appalling housing conditions and soaring unemployment. Yet few appear to know their MP or have even considered contacting him for help.
Getting in touch with Sir Stuart is the hot political talking point on Teesside. Yesterday the 73-year-old accused the local Evening Gazette of conducting a politically motivated campaign to unseat him after it reported the results of an investigation in which reporter Neil MacFarlane tried to speak to him on 100 occasions earlier this year. Despite phoning daily – 50 times to his constituency number and a similar amount at his Westminster office – he never managed to get through.
The MP, who has claimed £82,896 in staffing costs, however insisted that the report was "a total mystery" and was yesterday readily fielding calls from journalists.
Last night Labour sources said Ed Miliband was treating the allegations against Sir Stuart with the "uttermost seriousness". If they are proved, they added, the Labour whip could be withdrawn. Pressure could also be put on Sir Stuart's local party to deselect him.
The latest allegations come after it emerged Sir Stuart had not held a surgery in Middlesbrough for 14 years and does not have a publicly accessible office in the town.
Instead his local affairs are conducted from his home, an imposing, double-fronted property a mile and a half outside the town centre, by his wife, Lady Margaret, who earns £35,000 as his office manager.
The MP said he stopped holding open surgeries for "security reasons" after being threatened by a constituent in 1997 and has no intention of doing so again, believing the present system works "extremely well".
Speaking to The Independent yesterday Sir Stuart, a former barrister who holds the Legion d'honneur and has written a book of "erotic fiction", said he had "not a single recorded call" from the Evening Gazette. He said the problem dated to the last election when opposing Tory candidate John Walsh produced a video diary chronicling the campaign in which he made much of Sir Stuart's failure to hold public meetings.
"It is as if there is a new election going on, with the naïve view that they can unseat me and force a new election," said Sir Stuart, who added that he fully intended to serve out his full term.
Sir Stuart, a staunch supporter of former House of Commons Speaker Michael Martin and long-serving Second Church Estates Commissioner, said he had raised the issue of the newspaper's reporting with Sly Bailey, chief executive of Trinity Mirror, which owns the Evening Gazette, but had not received a "satisfactory response".
Peter Montellier, acting editor of the Evening Gazette, said the investigation was "most assuredly not politically motivated", but followed complaints from locals who had tried and failed to secure Sir Stuart's help.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/po ... 50953.html

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Miliband to question MP over claims
8:00am Thursday 8th September 2011
LABOUR leader Ed Miliband will interview a North-East MP over claims he is neglecting his constituents.
It is said Middlesbrough MP Sir Stuart Bell and his staff failed to answer 100 phone calls made between May and July, and that he has failed to hold a surgery in the town for 14 years.
Last night, Sir Stuart told The Northern Echo: “I am very proud of my record and of my achievements and I fully intend to see out my term to 2015.”
Referring to his staff of three who work on constituency matters, Sir Stuart said: “We have a clear conscience. We know our constituents and we do our job.”
The Middlesbrough Evening Gazette made the 100 unanswered calls before the summer recess, and has this week posed the question: “Are Teessiders getting enough from Sir Stuart Bell?”
It follows Sir Stuart’s refusal to take part in the paper’s weekly questionnaire that resulted in blank space being left where his answers would have been.
Sir Stuart said he had no record of the 100 calls.
He said: “The House of Commons has the finest switchboard in the land, open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and there were no recorded messages left on it.”
The issue of him not holding open surgeries was a feature of the local campaign during the 2010 General Election, and was included in the film Tory Boy: The Movie made by the Middlesbrough Conservative candidate, John Walsh.
Sir Stuart said: “I have not done an open surgery for years and meet people by appointment and go to their homes. I have been MP for 28 years, I have lived in Middlesbrough for 30 years in November, I spend four days a week there and have never had a single complaint from a constituent about this.”
Sir Stuart said he was attacked in an open surgery in 1997 by someone he believes still threatens him.
In 2010, Sir Stuart, 73, received 45.9 per cent of the vote in Middlesbrough and won a majority of 8,689.
Last night, a Labour spokesman said: “Ed Miliband and the Labour Party expect the highest standards from Labour representatives.
“It is totally unacceptable if the public cannot reach their MP. A number of allegations have been raised and these will be discussed with Sir Stuart.”
He added that it was “natural justice to talk to someone about allegations, to find out the truth”.
http://www.darlingtonandstocktontimes.c ... er_claims/

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Sir Stuart Bell:-
what the Scarlet Pimpernel Mr Invisible Bell gets up to rather than representing constituents in Middlesbrough
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