Campaigning for free personal care for the elderly

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Tue 3rd Apr 2001

Hounslow's two Liberal Democrat PPCs pooled their resources on Saturday to collect petition signatures in a bid to force the government into a u-turn on care funding.

Members of the campaign teams of Brentford and Isleworth prospective Parliamentary candidate Gareth Hartwell and his Feltham and Heston colleague Andy Darley were out in strength on Hounslow High Street.

They were collecting signatures as part of a campaign to make personal care for the elderly free of charge.

In Scotland, where Liberal Democrats share power, they have forced Labour to follow the recommendations of a Royal Commission which said the state should fund personal care such as washing and bathing for elderly people in residential care.

But in England the government is refusing to implement the commission's recommendation - hence the petition.

Andy Darley said: "Passers-by from all over the borough and from outside it were shocked to hear that Labour were trying to wriggle out of its responsibilities to elderly people.

"We received a lot of support from people appalled that a hundred thousand old folk have already lost their homes in order to pay for their care since Labour came to power."