Charles Kennedy backs Paul Rowen’s campaign

Charles Kennedy and Paul Rowen visit the Central Mosque

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Leader of the Liberal Democrats, Rt. Hon Charles Kennedy MP paid a special visit to Rochdale on Friday 4 March, to meet with Council Leader Paul Rowen to discuss plans on tax rates, and ‘a safer Rochdale’ and was interviewed by Rochdale Online.

Charles Kennedy arrived at Rochdale Town Hall and was joined by Council Leader Paul Rowen, Rochdale Mayor Cllr. Angela Coric, and special guest, Sir Cyril Smith.

Sir Cyril has come out of his retirement to lend his support to Mr. Kennedy. He said, “I’m delighted that Charles Kennedy has come to Rochdale. It indicates that the national party now realise that Rochdale is a winnable seat. I assure you that it is too, which is why, even in my state of health, I am here today”.

Sir Cyril was not the only one feeling confident; Council leader Paul Rowen said “The visit of the party leader shows that Rochdale is being taken seriously as we continue our momentum”.

Charles Kennedy spoke about the issues concerning pensioners in Rochdale. He said, “One main issue that I want to bring up today is the justice for pensioners in our country. It is quite scandalous that as the fourth wealthiest country in the world, we don’t consider those with pension needs in our society. We really want to help people over the age of 75, we’re talking of £100 per week, on the basic pension, for people aged 75 and over. That really needs to be done”.

Charles also tackled the issue of tax payments: “let’s talk about the people earning over £100,000 per year. If we say for every pound they pay 40 pence tax, if we put that 40 pence up to 50 pence, that is still less than what the top rate tax was most of the time that Mrs Thatcher was in power”.

Council Leader Paul Rowen added: “We are committed to axing the Council Tax. If you earn more that £100,000 per year, you will pay more tax. That is fair. At the moment, whether you’re a millionaire or you’re a pensioner, you’re still paying the same amount of tax. That is not fair.”

After the discussion at the Town Hall, Charles and Paul continued up to the Central Mosque for a tour, where Charles Kennedy spoke of his thoughts towards Council Leader Paul Rowen. “Paul is an outstanding campaigner for local people in Rochdale. He is honest, sincere and strong minded, just the sort of person we need in Parliament”.

Given that research shows many young people are apathetic about politics, I asked Charles how he would convince a young person to vote for the Liberal Democrats. He replied: "When I was first elected to the House of Commons I was 23 years of age: I was the youngest MP in Britain. I took the view from then on that we should not patronise young people by thinking that they only care about their own issues. In this day and age I think it’s quite appropriate that you should be able to vote at the age of 16, that’s not going to happen right now, but it’s something that we’ll keep in mind”.

I also asked how he was planning to back Paul Rowen's campaign for a safer Rochdale. Charles said: “In order to achieve a safer community, we should focus on more police on the streets, this is much more useful than spending all the money that the government are prepared to spend on identity cards”.

Paul Rowen added: “And of course we are likely to lose police in this next year because of the state of the budget”. He also said, “We also need to express our views on Rochdale getting the Metrolink system back. £500 million will not give us our Metro back; we need to make sure that we show full commitment”.

Charles Kennedy is one of a series of visitors to Rochdale by leading Liberal Democrat politicians. These include Andrew Stunell MP, Paul Holmes MP, Saj Karim MEP and party president Simon Hughes MP.