Dragon Interview: MP Angela Richardson Responds to Criticism for Failing to Reply To Constituents

Published on: 4 Oct, 2020
Updated on: 5 Oct, 2020

Angela Richardson being interviewed by Martin Giles during the 2019 general election campaign.

Guildford’s MP Angela Richardson, elected in December, could not have imagined that her introduction to Westminster politics was going to include the unprecedented constraints the coronavirus pandemic has caused.

A Conservative, Ms Richardson managed to hold on to the Guildford constituency for her party despite Prime Minister Boris Johnson telling her former party colleague Anne Milton, while still an MP, that the Guildford seat might have to be a price to pay for his Brexit stance. Ms Milton stood as an Independent having voted against the government on Brexit.

In the interview below, Martin Giles asks our local MP about her first year, her role as a Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS), the complaints on social media that she is not responding to all the emails and messages sent to her, planning, her views on the unitary authority proposals for Surrey and what should happen to the new “Guildford Four”, those who have broken away from Conservative Group at Guildford Borough Council…

(Please note, the normal Zoom recording function was not available for this interview so alternative recording method had the be quickly utilised.)

Responses to Dragon Interview: MP Angela Richardson Responds to Criticism for Failing to Reply To Constituents

Graham Richings Reply

October 4, 2020 at 10:59 pm

Regarding Martin Giles’s interview with Angela Richardson, can I just say that I have corresponded regularly with Angela since the election and found her response be good, despite what others might say.

She either reples by letter as Anne Milton did, or by email. Anne Milton was also good at replying but had been doing it for a long time whilst Angela has had to set up from scratch. Some allowance for that must be made.

I was present at the Harbour Hotel at the top of the High Street the evening that she was selected as our candidate for Guildford and I was impressed with her that evening.
Richard Davies Reply

October 6, 2020 at 4:33 pm

A few weeks ago I sent Ms Richardson’s office an email extremely critical of the government’s “management” of the Covid virus (it’s not a plague).

I got a reasonable but bland response; no more than I expected; nothing wrong with that.

The current approach to “managing” the virus is beyond parody but this no fault of Ms Richardson.

What she and her fellow MPs should do is force the government to change course on containing the virus. Otherwise a Lab/SNP coalition government beckons; what on earth could go wrong there?

The Scots will not vote for independence, they know which side their bread is buttered so it could be four years of a Lab/SNP government.

Think on.

It’s difficult for “ordinary” MPs to make an impact in current circumstances. But I will vote for Ms Richardson next time around.