Mr Kirk defends his decision on crucial vote

Press, 10 December 1983, Page 3

Mr Kirk defends his decision on crucial vote

Parliamentary reporter

The Independent member of Parliament for Sydenham, Mr John Kirk, hit back yesterday at critics who say he has no mandate from his Sydenham electorate to vote with the Government in favour of voluntary unionism. The president of the Labour Party, Mr J. P. Anderton, has called on Mr Kirk to resign for not canvassing the opinion of Sydenham electors before he gave the Government his crutlJ vote on the voluntary unionism sections of the Industrial Law Reform Bill.

Ms J. Weastrell, chairman of the Sydenham Labour Electorate Committee, and Mr P. J. Wright, vice-chair-man, have also said that Mr Kirk was ignoring the wishes of the people who had voted him into office, and was carrying out a personal vendetta against the Labour Party. Mr Kirk said yesterday that there were many times

he had voted with the Labour Party contrary to the wishes of his electorate. Party policy was held to be more important. His mandate had been given to him in the 1981 General Election, and he was now an Independent member of Parliament. If Sydenham electors felt he had violated his mandate, they could “throw him out” in 1984, he said. He intended to stand again as an Independent. Messrs Anderton and Wright and Ms Weastrell should realise that if they had not forced the resignations of two members of the House — Mr Kirk and Mr B. P. MacDonell — they could have brought the Government down on the Industrial Relations Bill and the Finance Bill, on which National members had crossed the floor in the last week, Mr Kirk said. “The Prime Minister (Mr Muldoon) could have been forced to go to the country in a snap election over

defeat of the voluntary unionism and interest rates bills,” Mr Kirk said. “The only reason that I am voting the way I am is that I have the freedom to do that. The Labour Party has kicked me out.”

Mr Kirk said yesterday that he had received threats of violence and intimidation over his stand.

Among letters he had received this week was a slip of paper with the word “traitor” written on it, and a drawn bullet hole. Mr Kirk said he believed that the threats were coming from unions. These had only served to harden his stand in support of the Government’s efforts to get the Industrial Law Reform Bill passed.