Last night's Brent Council Budget Setting meeting was different from others during the last more than a decade because for the first time an alternative was presented by a party to the left of Labour.
It was clear that in this, the last Full Council meeting before the May election, the move of five Labour councillors to the Green Party, riled the Labour leadership. They wanted to paint their move as opportunist rather than a matter of principle connected to Labour's national and local failings. Some Labour councillors looked a little shame faced during these attacks.
Deputy Leader Cllr Mili Patel, likened the three opposition parties to characters from the Wizard of Oz, quite forgetting that the real Wizard of Oz in her scenario, was in fact Cllr Muhammed Butt who was sitting next to her.
The election campaign has already seen some tricky moves by Labour including the release of Community Infrastructure Levy funds for pre-election improvements previously deemed impermissable, Labour election leaflets published with green colours rather than red, and Brent Council publicity on social media and in the Brent Magazine featuring plenty of pictures of Brent councillors claiming credit for various initiatives. Not an equal playing field.
The Brent Budget Debate was similarly unbalanced with Labour Cabinet Lead after Cabinet Lead extolling their own virtues with quote after quote listing the millions they were spending for the people of Brent, quite forgetting it was the people's money they were spending not the party's.
Cllr Muhammed Butt and Cllr Krupa Sheth feature
Those pre-election CIL funds and Cllr Krupa Sheth again
Designed to deceive? No, surely not?
Lib Dems and Greens voted against each other's alternative budgets last night and the details were different. However, there were some common themes regarding the importance of truly affordable housing (Greens want a separate Housing Scrutiny Commitee), environmental initiatives and reviewing the mayoral roles and finances.
Room for cooperation once elected?
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