Press Release - 25th April 2008

English Mayoral Candidate Steps Down – New Campaign to Launch

Matt O’Connor, the 41 year-old founder and frontman of Fathers 4 Justice today announced he was stepping down from the London Mayoral Race but will launch a new campaign for England this year.

O’Connor, who works in PR and Marketing, said the party did not have sufficient financial clout to run a credible campaign. When he joined he was told that the funding was in place to make a positive difference but that the reality was somewhat different.

The problems O’Connor discovered were that there was no party machine in London as promised, no advertising budget as promised, and they were economical with the facts about whether we’d be funded by backers. His recent party election broadcast which he organised also had amendments made without his knowledge.

He also struggled with an organisation that didn’t share his ideas and vision as evidenced in the difference between O’Connor’s official www.voteenglish.org site and the main party site.

On one occasion he was called racist and anti-Semitic by a senior member – a claim O’Connor described as ‘absurd’. He is also profoundly disappointed that they are now deliberately trying to smear him whilst at the same time the party was happy for him to stand.

Said O’Connor this morning, ‘It is sad but inevitable that they are trying to cover up their own internal problems. They did not deliver on their part of the agreement. It is extremely regrettable that this happened at this stage but I cannot stay in the party where people say things like that or where we have no sensible funding. I also had a clear vision to raise the issue of an English Parliament which they didn’t share.’

Nadine Taylor, Matt's Campaign Manager resigned several weeks ago because she could not work with the level of incompetence within the party. O'Connor recognises now "that I should have listened to her advice".

‘Descending to abusing somebody who campaigned in the Anti-Apartheid movement would be laughable if it were not so offensive. I am truly sorry for the good men and women in the party that this happened and while I wish the party every success, my record speaks for itself. Fathers 4 Justice has existed for the same amount of time as the English Democrats and F4J is a household name, with more members and wider recognition. The reality is that my resignation may generate more publicity for them than they achieved in the last six years.

‘Later this year I will launch a new campaign to raise issues like Tartan Taxes. Awareness is everything and they would probably stand to benefit from it.’

ENDS

“Cherish the past, adorn the present, construct for the future.” Clough Williams-Ellis

He defied the Government & Judiciary. He fought for our children and created Fathers 4 Justice. Now he wants to create a New London: a city of hope, opportunity and unexplored horizons. Here Matt O’Connor sets out his blueprint for the city we call home.

Over recent years mainstream political credibility has been tarnished by consecutive waves of scandal and incompetence. Nobody can claim to have all the answers, but we urgently need to break the depressing paralysis which grips our political discourse. There is I believe, an antidote. A way of challenging the current political monopoly, of releasing our democracy from the current stranglehold in which it is held by the incumbents.

I believe in a new creed of politics, free of the ideological baggage inherited by the ‘old order’ over the last two centuries. Londoners require a new and dynamic ‘situationalist’ response as we respond to the changing face of politics and our changing needs.

Londoners charged with energy, conviction and commitment; agents for change united by a common bond - the innate emotional attachment we place on our capital’s shared heritage, language, identity, cultures and traditions - regardless of race, colour or creed.

I want to change the language of politics and reignite the crucible of our democracy. But most importantly I want to offer Londoners a choice. A choice between the politics of hope and the politics of hate. Between the politics of integration and the divisiveness of segregation. Between the politics of the future and the politics of the past. A new pathway for London that refashions our identity, fusing together elements of the past with a future-looking orientation to create a confident and respectful city we can be proud of.

Unlike any of the other parties that represent the old order, I want to restore the democratic deficit in the Union of the United Kingdom. To stop the flow of taxes from London to other parts of the UK including Scotland and Wales, so that London’s taxes are spent on London, not Edinburgh. Five of the ten most deprived local authorities in the UK are in London and they urgently need economic support.

If we are to change the face of our city, we will also need to tackle the social disease of family breakdown. We are creating a dysfunctional city, a city of children without fathers, of dismembered families where last year the streets of London were stained with the blood of 27 teenagers, killed in a violent harvest of bullets and blades. Where 1 in 3 teenagers carries a blade, where gang crime is running out of control and where we have the highest rate of young offending in Western Europe, the highest rate of teenage pregnancies in Europe and an abortion epidemic.

Our elected politicians have failed in their duty of care to protect the public and to tackle the breakdown of large parts of our capital city. By promoting family and community cohesion, radical family law reform and unlocking the potential of young people in our communities, we can begin to stem the catastrophic social effects of family breakdown.

Together with you, I am committed to repairing our broken city, rebuilding fractured families and establishing strong, prosperous communities. I hope you will work with me in creating our New London - a city of opportunity, hope and unexplored horizons.

A London you can believe in.

Matt O’Connor