Archive for April, 2010
Hazel’s husband gets £80,000 expenses from local hospital
SHOCKER! It appears ‘jumping on the gravy train’ whilst the world is burning behind you runs in the family…
If Hazel Blears’ behaviour last year over her parliamentary expenses was “totally unacceptable” (in the words of the Prime Minister) then this latest scandal will blow your hospital gown off. The Salford Star has today discovered a rather disturbing truth about her solicitor husband, Michael Halsall.
In 2007 he joined the board of the hospital trust which runs Salford Royal as a non-executive director, one of eight “voluntary positions”. The hospital re-recruits members of the public every three years and often places adverts in local newspapers for the role. Each member receives over £13,000 a year in so called “expenses” – amounting to nearly £80k during his time on the board.
Interestingly Mr Halsall has apparently “nothing to declare” as a possible conflict of interest in the board’s Register of Interests which indicates unlike his wife he is not a member of the Labour Party, less the key fact that at the time Blears was a senior government minister and was able to benefit from her parliamentary expenses. Halsall has also failed to declare he is an employee of another local authority – Stockport.
This is the same board of directors Hazel Blears claims is responsible for taking a “local decision” by closing Salford’s only maternity ward and which has just announced at least 750 job losses. The local NHS trust (in bed with central government – literally!) have enforced cuts, closures, redundancies, PFI schemes and the controversial foundation status.
Is it any wonder the hospital is in trouble when the people who run it have been dipping in the till?!
In depth report at:
VOTE David Henry – “Hazel Must Go!”
On the day Gordon Brown officially declared the General Election will take place on May 6th, our candidate (David Henry) for the newly created constituency of Salford and Eccles launches his campaign blog.
David will be standing with electoral support from the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (T.U.S.C) under the banner of “Hazel Must Go” – the socialist alternative to the Blairite, war-warmongering, bank-bailing New Labour candidate Hazel Blears.
Keep reading both this site as well as David’s blog for all the latest news and articles as we support him on the campaign trail…
