New data has compared the parliamentary activity of Keighley & Ilkley's Conservative candidate Robbie Moore with Labour's candidate John Grogan during their time as MP's for the town.
The data reveals the number of spoken contributions made by the two Keighley and Ilkley MPs in the Commons Chamber and Westminster Hall from 2017 up to 27/11/2023, as well as voting attendance and spoken contributions in debates.
Statistics show that Mr Grogan, who is standing as Labour’s parliamentary candidate for Keighley and Ilkley at the next election, failed to raise antisocial behaviour, speeding, drugs and child sexual exploitation in the House of Commons chamber during his two-year tenure as the town’s MP - despite the former MP referencing “football” and “beer” twenty-five times.
Mr Moore referenced antisocial behaviour, speeding, drugs and child sexual exploitation a combined seventy-six times.
Voting attendance rates are also included in the data, which show Mr Moore attended 92.2% of votes in the period surveyed compared to 82.9% for Mr Grogan, with Mr Moore speaking in 166 debates compared to 61 for Mr Grogan.
Reacting to the data, Mr Moore accused his predecessor of being “asleep at the wheel” in Parliament.
Robbie Moore said:
“This data shows that Mr Grogan was asleep at the wheel whilst our town’s MP. He used more of his precious parliamentary time talking about beer than he did raising the issue of GP Services and crime on our streets. He never once raised Child sexual exploitation, antisocial behaviour, speeding and drugs in the House of Commons, despite raising football seventeen times. And he referenced the nation of Mongolia more than Silsden, Steeton and the Worth valley combined.
I fully understand that being an MP means raising issues both inside and outside of the House of Commons Chamber, but in my view it is completely unacceptable that someone who is trying, for a fourth time, to be our next MP chose to prioritise non-local issues.
My focus has always been on amplifying local voices and local issues, whilst always striving to be as active as possible - and I am confident that this data helps underline this.”
