Rochdale Two Minutes Silence: Media Battle Resumes

This is verbatim from Rochdale Online yesterday:

MP condemns Sir Cyril's ‘ignorant’ asbestos stance

Reporter: Jan Harwood
Date online: 10/11/2008

Sir Cyril Smith has come under more pressure to apologise for claiming that “there is no danger to the public at large from asbestos”, as the Member of Parliament for Manchester Central has publicly condemned Sir Cyril, claiming that the town's former MP had “misled” the people of Rochdale.

Tony Lloyd MP expressed astonishment at the links that have been shown between Sir Cyril Smith and T&N following the publication of controversial correspondence on Rochdale Online between Sir Cyril and the asbestos giants.

Mr Lloyd said he would happily publicly debate asbestos safety issues with Sir Cyril and, as someone with personal experience of working with asbestos, he was keen to challenge Sir Cyril’s strong views on the subject.

"I worked at Turner Brothers in Trafford Park and was one of thousands of workers who Sir Cyril wrongly claims knew of the risks,” he said. “We did not and many have paid the ultimate price for this. Considering all the evidence and many thousands of asbestos-related deaths that we've seen over the past few decades, I am truly amazed that, as a former MP for a town badly hit by the tragedy of asbestos, Sir Cyril is still trotting out the ignorant arguments about the public not being at risk from asbestos.

"I hope he will now do the right thing and apologise for misleading people on the issue of asbestos safety."

... More follows ... Tony Lloyd (right) is seen above (L-R) with journalists Miles Barter, Paul Routledge, Mansoor Hussein.