I manage a business in Premier House on Edgware High Street and we have recently been notified that Barnet Borough Council has given permission to turn the premises into a residential property. With zero consultation and in most cases only one month’s notice, the 70-80 companies (800-plus employees) in the building have been told they must vacate.

I attended a meeting last Monday within Premier House organised by concerned tenants that will face several very real challenges as a result of this, including staffing, new premises, moving costs, client base, etc. Invited to attend were local politicians Andrew Dismore (London Authority) and MP Matthew Offord (Hendon).

Setting aside the injustice of this, the reason I am writing to you is to vent my frustration at my first experience of Matthew Offord.

Mr Offord turned up more than 15 minutes late to the meeting and when given the floor made no attempt to apologise to the 60-plus concerned attendees. His only suggestion in his very short speech was to recommend that the tenants liaise with the landlord of Premier House and ask them for assistance. This was after the representative of the landlord had already admitted there was little worthwhile help or assistance he could offer.

Mr Offord then took his seat and for the next 30 minutes sat smiling patronisingly at the desperate situation so many of these people were in.

Admittedly the meeting was overly passionate at times but this was only as result of the situation these businesses (and registered charities) find themselves in. No further comment, advice or support was given by Mr Offord, he simply sat and smiled, looking down on these people and their attempt to defend themselves from what they see as a grave injustice.

By contrast Andrew Dismore did what he felt he could. He gladly took questions, he was honest in telling the assembled that they had little legal standing and gave them advice on how best to proceed with their campaign.

I have never been his biggest fan but he was honest and at least prepared to interact.

As the meeting descended into a period of some chaos (akin to our beloved House of Commons), Mr Offord took his chance and left the meeting quietly. I followed him to the lifts and asked if I might have a word. He was more than willing. I very calmly told him that I had been appalled by his conduct throughout the meeting and that it had been patronising beyond belief that a man in his position attended the meeting and did little but smile broadly at the situation of the building’s tenants. He didn’t deny it but told me that he was repeatedly “smiling at the irony of it all”. I pointed out that he had been invited for his support and advice by a number of his own constituents and they rightfully expected more than to be smiled at. In a bizarre turn, he responded by saying that he hadn’t been smiling at all. When I pointed out what he had just said he decided that I was being rude and that the conversation was over. He got in the lift and left the building.

I personally have little loyalty to any political party, though the one time I have voted in my adult life was for Matthew’s Conservative Party. I’m no activist and to actually get around to writing this letter (sad to admit) is a personal achievement for someone normally too disenfranchised to do so. However, the disgusting attitude and lack of care or concern shown by Mr Offord has spurred me on. I can only imagine that his slick ‘Blarite’ image and a good run from the Conservative Party in 2010 pulled the wool over enough eyes to get him elected. It certainly wasn’t his genuine yearning to make the lives of his constituents any better.

Elliott Moore

Broadfields Avenue, Edgware