Ellee Seymour

Maybe Ipswich MP Chris Mole was thinking about this when he joined colleagues and quit his post, urging Tony Blair to step down sooner rather than later.

With up to 1,000 predicted job losses in Suffolk’s health service over the next two years, and the severe impact this will have for local people, I guess he had no choice.

This is what Chris Mole said when resigning as parliamentary private secretary to communities minister Phil Woolas:

“As you will have gathered from recent media coverage, I have joined with a group of colleagues who were elected in 2001 to ask the Prime Minister to consider leaving office sooner rather than later.

“This I believe leaves me in a difficult position as a Parliamentary Private Secretary and I have consequently resigned from the government.

“I strongly believe the Prime Minister has lost the confidence of too many colleagues and more widely within the membership of the Labour Party and that renewal can only follow a change of leadership, our fortunes will not recover until that change has taken place.

I am confident that I have reflected the views of the constituency party “in taking this step.

“Whilst the letter was intended to be private, it has unfortunately become public leading to the resignation of a junior minister and a number of other colleagues. I had hoped that the Prime Minister would have been able to see that this was not a group of the usual suspects, but mainstream, supportive colleagues who fear for the interest of the party and country.

“Whilst I welcome the indication that the PM will have left office by July 2007, I want to see a more concrete indication that a transition to a new leader is being actively planned.”

At least Chris Mole can take comfort that many people share his views, including a large chunk of very anxious constituents.

I know Tony Blair has a lot on his mind at the moment, but I hope he makes time soon to discuss child snatchers with John Reid - and makes it a top priority.

Amazingly, strangers who abduct or try to snatch children are not placed on the Sex Offenders’ Register and the York Press has actively been campaiging for the law to be changed on this.

Blair visited York this week and expressed “sympathy” towards the campaign.

Julian Sturdy, who is contesting the new York Outer seat, is urging Blair to keep his word and come back with an answer by the autumn.

There can only be one answer. Blair is a father and can surely see that this legal loophole needs to be plugged immediately. A pity it wasn’t included in the first place in the Sexual Offences Act 2003 which is now under review.

The campaign has the full backing of Sara Payne whose daughter was abducted and brutally murdered. Each year in England and Wales, between 5 - 9 children are abducted and killed. Angry mother June Hick is desperate for a change too after the attempted abduction of her daughter.

I do not understand why we rely on newspapers to push for these laws to protect our children when the Government has its own highly paid legal team.

And why does does the Home Office send its Minister Gerry Sutcliffe to America to review the Sexual Offences Act 2003 when we surely have all the answers here, as well as concern and recommendations raised by our own judges?

I’ve just signed the York Press’s petition on this, if you wish to as well, here is the link.