The LibDem’s Equalities Spokesman(person) Sarah Olney’s immediate response to yesterday’s mini-budget was to complain of sexism, claiming Sunak’s measures were primarily targetting “male-dominated sectors without measures to engage more women in these industries,” even doing a media round to press this argument. As you can see in the video clip above, she didn’t fare well on TalkRadio…
Welcome news in the Chancellor’s speech - especially the hospitality VAT cut, Job Retention Bonus and investment in green jobs. But new jobs support very focussed on male-dominated sectors without measures to engage more women in these industries.
— Sarah Olney (@sarahjolney1) July 8, 2020
Sarah’s line of argument falls down, however, in ignoring the other major tranche of Rishi’s announcements, which were to help the hospitality sector – the vast majority of whose employees are female. A 2017 report by People1st found 65% of all part-time hospitality and tourism roles are filled by women, rising to 82% in contract food and 72% in hotels. 71% of all waiting staff are also female, and will be delighted by Rishi’s “Eat Out to Help Out” scheme, and the 15% reduction in VAT for the sector. Dishy Rishi doing much more for women than sexist Sarah…
Figures published in the Register of Members’ Interests show that during the 2019 general election, Sarah Olney received £55,975 in donations. By law, Olney’s local party was limited to spend just £11,003.55 on her campaign. She raised five times her legal spending limit…
Guido’s sure it wouldn’t have been spent in her ‘throw the kitchen sink’ campaign to win the seat back from Zac Goldsmith, as that would be a clear breach of electoral rules. So where’s the money gone?
See also: Met Say Olney Committed Criminal Offence Over Spending Breach
This week, Guido revealed the biggest EU leaflet lie so far, when the Putney Lib Dem candidate claimed she’d won the Nobel Peace Prize. In the end she said she hadn’t lied, and argued it was a typo down to human error – “it is clear from this typo I didn’t get the award for proof reading”. A self-evident statement given ‘proofreading’ is one word…
Their Putney PPC clearly wasn’t the only candidate without proofreading skills, as Sarah Olney’s latest Lib Dem leaflet manages to misspell the name of the constituency area ‘North Kingston’.
As faux pas go, this one still pales in comparison to her criminal election spending last time…
The LibDems have finally re-selected MP-for-five-months and Ed Davey supporter Sarah Olney to fight her old Richmond Park seat. The party had forced their candidate to go through another selection process following her incredibly short stint as Vince Cable’s Head of Staff and a police investigation into her campaign spending. Last night a relieved Olney said…
“I’m honoured to have been re-selected by our local members to fight this seat. Thank you to everyone involved for a great contest.”
Guido understands that a contested selection like this is unusual practise for LibDem former MPs who want to stand again. In 2017 previously defeated candidates like Vince Cable, Jo Swinson, and Ed Davey were nodded through. Olney didn’t face such good grace from her local membership…
Poor old Sarah Olney hasn’t had the best of times since her fleeting stint in Parliament was brought to an unceremonious end in 2017. After being dumped back out by Zac Goldsmith, she got a cushy job as Vince Cable’s Head of Staff, only to lose it after just six weeks. She briefly held on to her bumper £68,000 pay packet despite going part time, only to lose that too after another four months. Then she had a visit from the Old Bill a month later over her criminal breach of spending laws in the 2016 by-election. Her one stroke of luck was that the police bizarrely decided not to press charges despite evidence she had been deliberately dishonest, would they have been this lenient with a Leaver?
Olney was hoping to waltz straight back into the role of Lib Dem candidate for Richmond Park – it turns out the local Lib Dems have other ideas. Despite her only losing by 45 votes last time, they’ve deselected her as the candidate and are forcing her to fight against two other candidates if she wants the position back, including David Campanale, an NUJ rep who works for the BBC. Olney’s website expired last month on ‘Europe Day’ – saraholney.org.uk now redirects to the Kingston Independent Residents Group. Looks like it’s not just the local Lib Dems who are happy to see the back of her…
The Metropolitan Police has has found “discrepancies” with the election spending return of former LibDem MP Sarah Olney, which it says amounts to a criminal offence. Olney has been interviewed by cops under caution. Yet, despite an offence being committed, the CPS has decided not to charge Olney because “it would not be in the public interest” as there is no evidence Olney has been deliberately dishonest. This looks to be an error on the part of the CPS. Olney declared on her expenses form that she became a candidate on 31 October, but she announced herself as the candidate on 26 October. By declaring a false start date, Olney was able to cut several days of spending out of her regulated period. How is that not dishonest?
The police are showing it’s one rule for politicians and another rule for everyone else – would they treat a benefits cheat with the same leniency? The Met and the CPS giving the LibDems the green light to break the law at will…
