MP Mark Jenkinson has urged Labour parliamentary candidate Josh MacAlister to publicly condemn “sickening” animal cruelty shown by a senior member of his campaign team.
Mari Stanford, recently elected policy officer for the Whitehaven and Workington Labour Party, was jailed in 2016 for neglecting a white lurcher named Charlie – and was also barred from keeping animals for life.
When Charlie was found, he was skin and bone, and an RSPCA inspector described him as “the skinniest dog seen alive“.
Mari Stanford then went by the name of ‘Marie Staniforth’ but has made efforts to change her name following her conviction.
The revelations were recently published on the Guido Fawkes website, after it's alleged that local newspapers refused to run the story even after presented with the evidence.
Mark Jenkinson, who himself is owned by three French bulldogs, said:
I am an MP, but I also a dog-lover, and I was horrified to learn of this sickening neglect of an animal.
I know that Mari Stanford - as she is now known - is heavily involved in Josh’s campaign to win the Whitehaven and Workington seat. But I also know Josh claims to be an animal lover.
I am sure he must be as shocked and disgusted as I am to learn that a person who is now part of his campaign team, and with whom he was happy to be photographed, could do this to a defenceless animal.
He needs to speak out and condemn these actions – and clarify publicly what role this ‘policy officer’ has played in his campaign to date.
I would also hope that Baroness Hayman of Ullock, a high-profile supporter of Josh MacAlister’s campaign who has been a fixture with Stanford on the campaign trail a number of times, as well as a self-declared animal welfare champion, will have something to say about this as well.
Josh, however, has so far been reluctant to speak on matters of public interest. For example, he is yet to give his position on the new coking coal mine for Whitehaven.
I have noticed a clear pattern. He either avoids discussing controversial topics altogether – or he uses evasion, gaslighting, and deflection to dodge the real issues in his tiresome blame game. I have said it before, and I will say it again: honesty matters in politics.
We have already seen his refusal to hold his Labour comrades on Cumberland Council to account for their failures on bins, buses, and school places: this is a man who puts party before people.
I hope he breaks with tradition at least on this occasion and speaks out unequivocally against animal cruelty.
That the actions of his party colleague were abhorrent is something upon which everyone, whatever their political affiliations, should be able to agree without hesitation.”
Staniforth (now Stanford), who owned a pre-school in Cleator Moor, denied a charge of causing unnecessary suffering to Charlie back in September 2016.
However, she was found guilty after a trial, jailed for 126 days, and banned for keeping animals for life.
She was also ordered her to pay a £281.70 donation to the RSPCA and an £80 surcharge.
