TRIBUTE TO JENNY TONGE

12.00.00am GMT Tue 11th Mar 2003

Cllr Serge Lourie, Liberal Democrat Opposition Leader on the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames Council, has publicly thanked Jenny Tonge MP for all her work helping the local community.

"She has been an outstanding MP and a strong fighter for local people. She has also been a distinguished front bench spokesperson taking on the very difficult development brief, shadowing Clare Short."

"I can entirely understand why she and her husband, Keith, have decided that she should stand down. She will be missed, as an excellent MP, by all of us who know her and by the many people she has represented."

"I had the privilege to serve on the Council with her as a fellow ward member for Kew and I enjoyed that period very greatly. We got on extremely well even when we went to the Development Control Committee on a planning application and spoke on different sides."