The weekend outcry from the left over Labour MP Charlotte Nichols’ “Gypsy incursion” leaflet was fierce, with even that life-long anti-racism campaigner Chris Williamson slamming her as “a first-class graduate from the @Jewdas School of Hypocrisy”. Labour has now said they’re going to “withdraw and destroy [the] election leaflet” – however this was not the first time North Warrington’s Labour MP has targeted the community. 

In 2015 Nichols’ predecessor as the local MP, Helen Jones, wrote to the local paper over a similar illegal traveller camp, saying constituents raising objections about it “is not racist”. 

“People need to understand that the groups of travellers we have had in north Warrington recently have caused real problems.

Last year, people in Culcheth and Croft suffered from their aggression.

This year, the people of Bruche have experienced problems and residents of Birchwood have seen damage to the Forest Park, people defecating and urinating in public, damage to property and general anti-social behaviour.

This kind of behaviour would not be acceptable from anyone living in a settled community so there is no reason we should accept it from anyone else.”

While residents in Tory-held Warrington South are able to enjoy their MP get on with the job of fighting illegal sites without a national internercine culture war being waged, Labour is now putting the demands of party activists first. It won’t be long before we see how that strategy pays off in the May locals…