Wednesday 25 February 2015

What kind of whipping will Brent councillors have on Monday?

Following the internal row over Brent Council Labour Group's vote in favour of a Council Tax rise of 1.99% in order to save a number of important services, which was then dismissed by the Labour leadership as a straw poll which they did not have to take account of, there appears to be some shifting of position  ahead of Monday's Full Council Meeting.

Cllr John Duffy has complained to the Constitutional Officer of the Labour Party about the vote disregard LINK and I understand there is anger among backbenchers about the situation.

Now Cllr Sandra Kabir, Labour's Chief Whip, has made a statement to the Kilburn Times LINK which is not exactly a model of clarity but may indicate tolerance of a possible 'rebellion':

The Times reports:
The full council will vote on the cuts next Monday but councillors are under no obligation to vote.
Cllr Sandra Kabir, Brent Council’s chief whip, told the Times: “Nobody can be forced to vote against the budget they don’t want. But the budget was made starting from August, over the summer, over many, many sessions with the councillors, so everyone is very aware of what’s in the budget.”

Asked if councillors would be disciplined if they voted against the cuts she said: “Not necessarily no.”

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

By ignoring a vote of the Labour group, it is the leadership which has broken the whip.

Anonymous said...

“Not necessarily COMMA no” means 'no'.
“Not necessarily no” (which is what she appears to have said) means 'quite possibly yes'.

Useful things, commas.

Anonymous said...

If they don't vote for a budget they don't believe in surely this is better than voting for the budget.

Eric Pickles can then sought out the Pickle and by May if ever London Borough did the same then we would be in a right old Pickle and people might just vote for parties who oppose Austerity.

Sadly both Tory and Labour seem to be pushing the Austerity Bandwagon and they could both be History in May