Labour and the Tories made a backroom deal yesterday (Tues May 19th) to share control of Barnet Council, after neither party emerged victorious from the May 7th borough council election.
Labour lost control of the council after a successful campaign from the Green Party in Woodhouse elected Cllr. Charli Thompson, which turned out to be the deciding vote in the 63-member chamber, as the Tories and Labour were tied with 31 seats each.
She called for councillors to rise to the challenge by increasing transparency, accountability and allowing the voices of all residents to be heard.
Instead, they voted unanimously to change the council's constitution to reshape the numbers in all key committees, such that the lone Green councillor would be excluded from all of them. The Tories then abstained on a vote to re-elect Labour’s Barry Rawlings as leader of the council, handing power to Labour as agreed in talks that began immediately after the election.
Barnet Greens
The Green Party received 16% of the vote across the London borough. At Tuesday's council meeting, the first since the election, Cllr. Charli Thompson called for councillors to acknowledge that voters had not given either party a mandate to govern. Instead, she said, the vote showed that the Tories and Labour believe that there is such a thing as "second class councillors…and therefore second-class citizens"
No voters in Barnet voted for a Labour-Conservative coalition, in fact the two parties sank to their lowest ever combined share of the vote, with 37% of voters turning elsewhere - these voters deserve to be represented.
For all practical purposes, in Barnet the Tories and Labour have merged into a single party.
Look out for similat events in Brent. watch tonight's Council Meeting live from 6pm. LINK
