struggling to find a positive message

DESPITE fighting what could be one of the Conservative's safest seats, Bob Neill's election campaign has run into a mire of 'negative campaigning', allegations of carpet-bagging and threatened legal action.

The Tory talks to the Bromley Times about his admiration for Michael Howard, and why he hopes to be moving house come Election Day.

THE old adage that 'even if they pinned a blue rosette on a chimp, it would win' could have been coined with Bromley and Chislehurst in mind, held as it was last year with a Conservative majority of more than 13,200.

But however safe the seat, Bob Neill can take nothing for granted. His high-visibility selection above David Cameron's diverse 'A-list candidates' brought derision from opponents, who claimed the party's selection of a middle-aged, white, Masonic barrister over highly regarded ethnic and female alternatives showed the party was incapable of change.

Equally, the right have characterised him as a Europhile supporter of Kenneth Clarke who regularly sits on an EU committee, and who is certainly not the man to fill the shoes of the avowedly Eurosceptic Eric Forth, who like UKIP candidate Nigel Farage was a signatory of the Better Off Out campaign calling for Britain's withdrawal from the EU.

An ill-tempered spat between the two parties came to a head on Monday with Mr Neill's team threatening legal action for libel over claims that he supports the European Union, high taxes and unlimited immigration. UKIP responded with their own strongly-worded retort on Tuesday.

And among the public, 87 per cent of respondents to a Bromley Times internet poll said they did not want Mr Neill to be the borough's MP.

Nevertheless says the candidate, taking a break from "campaigning very hard" to enjoy a coffee at the Queen's Head pub in Chislehurst, the response on the doorstep has been "generally, very positive".

This, he says, is in contrast to the "negative campaigning" of his opponents, who have sought political capital from his address, he lives in Tower Hamlets, and his plethora of other jobs, he is a Greater London Authority Member for Bromley and Bexley, a barrister, and member of a regional health authority.

"There has been a disappointing, negative aspect of the other parties campaigning," he says, before offering a quick jab of his own, "it says something that the other parties are struggling to find a positive message.

"I happen to live about 20 minutes away but once the election is out of the way I will move to live here full time. I have never made a secret of that. I am happy to stand on my track record in Bromley as a GLA member."

When asked if he would prefer to miss Prime Minister's Question Time or the London Mayor's Question Time, both held on Wednesdays, the politician replied: "We work on each occasion when we have tabled a question, I don't think it is a massive problem, and Ken Livingstone managed it for a year when he was an MP and mayor."

Mr Neill has pledged to stand down from his GLA seat in 2008, and says his health authority job ends on July 1.

"What it means is that I am going to have to work much harder for 20 months but that is a burden I am prepared to take on board."

However, his membership of the Metropolitan Police Authority also caused controversy after he and three Conservative MPA members were referred to an ethics watchdog in February for "allegedly unlawfully discriminating" against a black colleague. Mr Neill says the allegations, which also include an "alleged failure to treat others with respect", and "allegedly disclosing confidential information" are "totally baseless and absolute nonsense".

On the European issue the former Ken Clarke supporter says he now describes himself as "Euro-disillusioned", in favour of free trade but against a single currency, the constitution and any "federalist agenda".

So what kind of MP would Mr Neill be? Aside from providing a "voice for the suburbs" and fighting the "overdevelopment of the borough", a clue is in his praise for Michael Howard's tenure as Home Secretary in the 1980s: prison works.

"What we saw very clearly from Michael Howard's time as Home Secretary, when he undertook a large building program of prisons, was that crime fell, without resorting to fiddling with figures.

"Identity cards will cost the country £1.5 billion, this money could build 18 prisons and allow judges to send some people to prison because there is room.

"Labour has let the borough down. They famously said they would be tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime, but that is still the biggest local issue for people and we are still no further forward in sorting out the real issues."

So is it possible to win an election when almost all of your policies are 'under review' in head office?

"It is a fact we are in the process of developing policies," he says, "for example on prisons, but the crucial thing is that when we develop those policies, the views of suburban London are taken into account. It is a real challenge and one I am looking forward to.

BROMLEY TIMES