Dear Editor,

IT LOOKS as if our Tory MP Geoffrey Clifton-Brown has an obsession with shooting, even to the detriment of his own constituents.

Earlier this year it was revealed that he had taken advantage of a gift from the Association for Hunting and Conservation which says it aims to promote “a strong and unified voice for shooting” on a day when we would have been expecting him to work for us.

Now he has proposed an amendment to overturn his own Tory Government’s proposal to ban high-powered military-grade .50 calibre rifles which have previously been used to murder British soldiers and police officers.

Police forces support the ban on the guns, which the National Crime Agency says have the power to immobilise a light or medium-size vehicle or truck at 1,800 metres and are too powerful to be used for sporting purposes.

Mark Groothuis, the national firearms licensing liaison officer for counter-terrorism policing, has told MPs during the bill’s committee stages that he was concerned that “if one of these guns were to be stolen, again with the ammunition, and if it were to get into terrorist hands, it could be very difficult to fight against or to protect against.

He went on to say “There is very little – nothing, as far as I know – that the police service have that could go up against a .50 in the way of body armour or even protected vehicles”.

Not content with ignoring his duties as an MP earlier in the year Sir Geoffrey now appears to be prepared to put the lives of our police and his constituents at risk by allowing easier access to weapons that could fall into the hands of terrorists.

Apparently, this is some sort of “game” to show Teresa May the strength of feeling of the hard right wing group of Brexit supporting MPs although the logic if that will be unclear to sensibly minded people and what a dangerous game it is to play with the lives of innocent people to make a political point.

As the Tories fight amongst themselves it is clear that our MP will go to any lengths, including this move to allow dangerous weapons to be used in a way that his own Government think should be banned to further his own ends whatever his constituents views on such matters.

Is it not time for him to announce he will be standing down as our MP if he is not prepared to protect us as his constituents.

Yours

Andy Woolley

Tetbury

On behalf of the Cotswolds Labour Party