MK Labour are calling on MK Conservatives to disown comments a local election candidate has made about Wolverton.

Nabeel Nazir, an MK Conservative candidate, recently posted a comment saying it was “shocking” that MK Council submitted a joint bid with Wolverton and Greenleys Town Council to the Government’s High Street Fund to help fund the long planned regeneration of the Agora in Wolverton. The bid was submitted as the Agora scheme was well advanced, had the backing of the Wolverton Neighbourhood Plan and was supported by developer TOWN. The Government only allowed one bid per local authority to the fund. However local Tory Nabeel, who is standing in the Tory held seat of Bletchley Park, has objected, posting his negative comments on Facebook. He complains that no bid was made for Queensway, despite Bletchley and Fenny Town Council, chaired by a well-known Tory activist, not making any significant approach to bid and having no plan on what any bid would fund. He then insinuates Wolverton has less need than Bletchley for funding.

Ed Hume, Labour activist, said: “I have campaigned for years for improvements to Queensway. Sadly Bletchley and Fenny Town Council, chaired by a Conservative, have so far consistently failed to get to grips with the issue. Slurring another town is no way to regenerate Bletchley.”

He continued: “Only recently MK Labour announced significant spending to clean up Queensway, investing in real measures to improve our community, and we are progressing with a prospectus for the future of the town, such as a new bus station and railway station improvements. All MK Tories can muster is an empty slogan, hollow promises and fake news. Sadly I believe he’s following the example set by the MK Conservative leadership, who have consistently shown a disregard for the truth in favour of attention-grabbing headlines.”

He concluded: “MK Conservatives should disown Nabeel Nazir’s comments about Wolverton. Doing down another historic MK town is no way to campaign. Someone who pits one place in Milton Keynes against another should have no place on MK Council. MK Labour wants to create stronger communities and a thriving Bletchley, and I can pledge to work hard within the community to ensure that Bletchley has something positive to bid for the next time the opportunity comes up.”