What The Papers Say
Below are just some of the comments Michael has earned from local and national newspapers for his work as a local MP.
Why Michael Fallon is best …
With so many dramatic changes being planned to the way the UK economy is managed and regulated, the House of Commons’ Treasury Select Committee will soon take on a renewed importance as a watchdog and check on the government and Bank of England. Michael Fallon, Tory MP for Sevenoaks, deserves to be its new chairman. He is financially literate, economically sound and spent years as an entrepreneur and director of a top City firm. Let us hope MPs vote for him at next week’s elections.
CITY AM Wednesday, 2nd June 2010 EDITOR’S LETTER ALLISTER HEATH
On cutting public spending …
“Michael Fallon’s article in our series on public spending, published on Thursday, wsa an example of radical thinking by a Tory outside the charmed circle whose voice should be heeded.” Daily Telegraph 12th September 2009
On fighting for Sevenoaks …
“Take note of MP’s warning: Michael Fallon is not a brash man, he is not an MP prone to inaccurate outbursts for the sake of grabbing headlines, and he does not seek publicity for the sake of it. That is why his remarkably outspoken warning about the hospital should not only be taken on board, but should make the people of Sevenoaks stand up and listen.” Sevenoaks Chronicle 25th May 2006
“Livingstone’s transport empire may be extended: “It is a pretty sly thing”, said Michael Fallon MP for Sevenoaks “You could have Livingstone protecting fares for people who are his constituents at the expense of people who are not. The proposals would give the mayor the power to set fares and services for my constituents, but they do not get the chance to vote for who should be London’s mayor.” Daily Telegraph 20th February 2007
Fighting for tax-payers …
“Michael Fallon has done the public a real service by harrying Myners so effectively in the theatre of the Commons Treasury Select Committee.” Daily Telegraph 18th March 2009
“Michael Fallon MP, a member of the Treasury Select Committee, has called for more taxpayers to be switched to the shorter four-page return to ease the administrative burden.” Sunday Telegraph 28th January 2007
On prisons spending: Stephen Timms, Chief Secretary to the Treasury, “was also challenged by Michael Fallon, a former Conservative Minister and MP for Sevenoaks, over how the Home Office had managed to spend £197 million on new headquarters built under the private finance initiative but only £110 million on new prisons, with the result that the Home Secretary “is asking the courts not to send people to prison.” Financial Times 31st January 2007
Standing up for savers
“… Michael Fallon, the senior conservative on the Treasury Select Committee, said: “Yet again the banks are frustrating savers’ efforts to protect their money. The rates are low enough as it is, it does seem unfair if savers can not take advantage of better rates with their top-up money. This is a by-product of a very late Budget. The banks, building society and Treasury need to sit down and thrash this out to make sure savers don’t lose out.” Daily Telegraph 18th September 2009
Campaigning for more social mobility …
“‘Labour has created two nations: one in which the majority of us live, with jobs, cars and homes of our own. In the other live many stranded on benefits, in poor quality public sector rented accommodation, without cars, jobs and many of the luxuries of modern living’ said the report, drawn up by Tory MP Michael Fallon.” Daily Telegraph 15th February 2007
For grilling Gordon Brown …
“Few Tories ruffle the Chancellor’s leonine serenity. But Fallon stirred the beast into fury with a memo appearing to show Treasury fingerprints on an Office for National Statistics decision. The Chancellor roared words like “impugning integrity” but the MP kept going.” Evening Standard, 22nd March 2005
“Every Parliament brings its own Select Committee stars. In the 2001 Parliament it was two Tories who used a Select Committee to biff inscrutable authority. Michael Fallon and David Ruffley (Sevenoaks and Bury St Edmunds, respectively) were the only stout hearts who managed to grab Gordon Brown’s collar and ask the then almighty Chancellor what the blithering heck he was doing with the economy. How prescient their attacks now look.” Daily Mail, 9th May 2008
Grilling Northern Rock …
“As Treasury Committee member Michael Fallon told Mr Ridley yesterday: ‘You are the chairman of the bank that run out of money, that caused the first bank run in this country for 150 years. You have had to borrow millions of public money from the Bank of England. You have damaged the good name of British banking. Why are you still clinging to office? Isn’t that a darned good question?” Leading Article, Daily Mail 17th October 2007
Unexpected tributes …
“Michael Fallon’s article in our series on public spending, published on Thursday, was an example of radical thinking by a Tory outside the charmed circle whose voice should be heeded.” Daily Telegraph 11th September 2009
“Leaving aside frontbenchers such as David Cameron and the outstanding Vince Cable, there are back-bench House of Commons men and women such as Labour’s Gwyneth Dunwoody, Bob Marshall-Andrews and Kate Hoey, and the Tories’ Richard Shepherd, Michael Fallon and the reinvented Iain Duncan Smith who deserve to be considered great MPs.” Lord Tebbit, Daily Mail 4th February 2008
Why isn’t Michael Fallon in the Shadow Cabinet?
“Has anyone – apart from ConservativeHome noticed that the Member for Sevenoaks is pound for pound one of the most effective operators on the Tory benches? He offers a consistently robust Thatcherite critique of Labour’s economic failings. As vice-chairman of the Treasury Select Committee, where he plays a nifty bad cop to John McFall’s good cop, he has repeatedly skewered Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling, most recently on Northern Rock. Mr Fallon is a canny media operator who manages to generate more coverage than half the Shadow Cabinet. He must rank alongside David Davis and Chris Grayling as one of the biggest sources of Tory trouble for Labour. And he’s not afraid to speak his mind. In the Telegraph today he puts forward an elegant argument for tax cuts and a break with Labour’s spending plans. Significantly, he uses it to advance the criticisms of George Osborne’s “sharing the proceeds of growth” strategy by declaring: “Matching Labour’s plans until 2011 may have been politically astute; sharing the proceeds of growth thereafter now looks fiscally nebulous.” (No doubt he’s aware that the Shadow Chancellor’s pledge runs out in 2011). Dissing the leadership in public may undermine his case, but isn’t it time to bring Mr Fallon in from the cold? Mr Cameron believes barely a half-dozen of those in his top team are any good, so there is scope for vacancies. And Mr Fallon has the added advantage of being a former minister, whose presence would help draw the contrast between the Tory frontbench and a Brown Cabinet that is looking a bit juvenile.” Ben Brogan, Daily Mail 13th February 2008