Labour have wrongly accused Andrew Stunell of breaking ministerial code for an announcement on empty homes that was made back in October 2010. The Guardian are reporting that
in a letter to O’Donnell, the shadow cabinet office minister John Trickett raised a “possible breach of the ministerial code” after Stunell’s press release. Trickett wrote: “The announcement was clearly made to influence the outcome of the byelection. This has the appearance of a clear breach of guidelines on the appropriate communication of government announcements.
The row broke out after Andrew Stunell, the Lib Dem housing minister, announced after a visit to the constituency on Saturday that the government would be unveiling a £100m government scheme to bring empty houses back to use.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2011/jan/10/liberal-democrats-byelection-row-rules
except that for those with a short memory even the most casual google reveals that the announcement was made back in October:
The Government has announced a £100 million fund to bring empty homes back into use as part of the comprehensive spending review.
In a letter sent to council leaders outlining the coalition government’s plans for reforming housing in the next four years, housing minister Grant Shapps gave details of the fund.
Source: http://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/housing-management/%C2%A3100m-to-bring-empty-homes-back-into-use/6512202.article (25 October 2010)
Andrew Stunell had also announced the proposals in the House of Common in Oral Answers to Questions — Communities and Local Government on 25th November 2010:
The coalition agreement says clearly that we are planning to tackle the issue, and we have made the first steps. We intend to provide £100 million over the spending review period to bring empty homes back into use-that is a tripling of the money contributed by Labour in the last comprehensive review period. We are consulting on how the new homes bonus can also be used to bring more homes back into use.
It was around this sort of time in the general election that Phil Woolas put out those leaflets that sparked this by-election. Seems Labour haven’t learned a thing.