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Greens accuse Labour & Co-op of being 'closet Tories'

By James Ledward
Jan 29, 2012 - 9:31:55 AM
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Cllr Jason Kitcat

The Greens have always assumed that Brighton & Hove, Conservatives would vote for a tax freeze in the coming budget in support of national party policy, however following a vote at full council last Thursday (January 26) the Labour and Co-op group joined the Conservatives in rejecting proposals for a 3.5% council tax rise.

They chose instead cuts to council services the Greens claim would accompany such a freeze.
 
The vote carries no weight and has no effect on the budget proposals themselves: it was merely indicative of party feelings.

Green Cabinet Member for Finance & Central Services, Cllr Jason Kitcat said:
“City politics have gone in a bizarre direction for the Labour Party to be uniting with the Conservatives to impose an additional £5.4m in cuts on the people of the Brighton & Hove. We already face huge austerity measures from the Conservatives in Westminster and now Labour says it will be helping the Conservatives to make things even tougher in our city.
“These ‘blue Labour’ councillors have spent the last two months criticising the Greens for what they call frontline cuts but now they’re declaring that if they had their way, they would impose a further £5.4m reduction in services.

“Yet they don’t seem to know how they would fund the £5.4m that the tax freeze would cost. So we call on the Labour councillors to get their act together and reveal their cuts in detail. We gave the city plenty of time to look at our proposals and suggest amendments, to which we listened. It’s only fair on the people of our city that the both Labour and Conservative councillors should reveal their cuts or admit that they don’t actually know how they would balance the books. It’s time for them to put up or shut up.”
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Cllr Gill Mitchell

Cllr Gill Mitchell, leader of the Labour and Co-op group, said:
"We fundamentally disagree with the Greens' approach to their budget that is one of disastrous cuts to essential services and bumping up taxes. They should instead be practising what they preached prior to the election last year when they promised action on top level pay and supported a council tax freeze."


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