I AM astonished that despite representing a party which in 18 years did nothing to protect the health of food consumers, the Astley Bridge Tory candidate recently had the audacity to criticise the funding of the New Food Standards Agency.

Instead of complaining about a charge which works out as less than £2 a week, Stuart Lever should start apologising to voters in Astley Bridge for the £160 they are having to spend to pay for the clean up after the mess of the BSE crisis, created by his Tory Government. In comparison, £2 a week pales into insignificance with the £3.5B that the Tories have asked the taxpayer to fork out in order to clean up this mess.

M Schmid

Lower Landedmans, Westhoughton

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