Labour's "take the money and run" candidates

Welsh Lib Dem by-election candidates Amy Kitcher and Steve Bard have labelled Owen Smith and John Hopkins as the "take the money and run" candidates.

The accusation comes as the Welsh Lib Dems claim that the Labour candidates are more than happy to have up to £200,000 spent on their campaign by Tony Blair's party, but can't run away quickly enough from their Government's key policies.

The Labour candidates are campaigning in Blaenau Gwent to save Gwent Police and for government assistance to re-open post office branches. This is despite Tony Blair's Government trying to force through a merger of the Welsh police forces and supporting a scheme to close urban post offices across Britain.

Parliamentary candidate Amy Kitcher said:

"Is Owen Smith ashamed of Tony Blair's government? The candidates are more than willing for the Labour party to fund their campaign - up to £200,000 worth of funding - but won't return the favour by backing Labour policies.

"The Liberal Democrats are the party with an ex-sprinter as a leader, but it's the Labour candidates in Blaenau Gwent that are running the £200k dash in this by-election."

Assembly candidate Steve Bard said:

"I'm happy to standing on behalf of my party and its policies. I'm committed to preventing any further Post Office closures locally, fighting to stop the Blaenau Gwent out-of-hours GP service being moved to Newport and against the merger of local police forces.

"The Labour candidates claim that they would have voted against the invasion of Iraq, against the post office closure programme and are against the merger of the Welsh police forces. These are all the policies of Tony Blair's government - the Labour candidates should not be embarrassed to support them."

BLAENAU LIB DEMS