Leader: Mark Pritchard puts head above parapet over immigration crisis
Wrekin MP Mark Pritchard is one of those rare things – an MP who speaks his mind without fear or favour.
Wrekin MP Mark Pritchard is one of those rare things – an MP who speaks his mind without fear or favour.
It has not made him popular in Downing Street. It is unlikely that he will ever see high office under David Cameron.
But in a democracy the people that should really matter are the people – and here the free-thinking, free-speaking Mr Pritchard has struck a chord with the ordinary members of the public.
How else do you explain the fact that in just seven years as Member for The Wrekin he has turned it from a marginal seat into one in which, at the last election, he enjoyed the biggest majority in the seat’s history?
A few days ago he quit as deputy chairman of the Conservative Party’s International Office because he felt he could no longer continue in the role because of his concerns over government policies, including Europe and immigration.
“I am putting my constituents before my career,” he said.
Free of his shackles, he today outlines in our pages why he thinks not enough is being done to bring down immigration.
This is the big no-go area of politics. While everybody else, from the most humble worker, through the squeezed middle and the self-styled intellectual elite, considers it an important and pressing issue, politicians tip-toe around the subject in the knowledge that if they put one word out of place the metro-centric media and interest groups will fall over themselves to call them racists and demand that they are removed from office forthwith.
Whether or not you agree with what Mr Pritchard is saying, he deserves enormous credit for putting aside such considerations and speaking his mind in reasonable and reasoned terms.
And what a shame it is that saying what he thinks on a matter of great public interest has to come at the cost of putting aside political office and ambition.
Wrekin MP Mark Pritchard speaks out over Britain’s immigration crisis in today's Shropshire Star
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