A general View of Liverpool Town Hall, Castle Street, Liverpool
LABOUR councillors in Liverpool have been suspended from the party for opposing huge spending cuts in the council’s proposed budget.
Their suspension followed a declaration by Cllrs Alan Gibbons, Alison Clarke, Alfie Hincks, Rona Heron, Joanne Calvert and Lindsay Melia that they would vote against £10.7 million in cuts — including in social care, the council’s biggest area of spending.
The budget includes the introduction of charges for green bin waste collection and a maximum council tax rise of 2.99 per cent.
Councillor Gibbons said: “A number of us issued a statement saying we were not voting for cuts.”
He said they received emails telling them they had been suspended and banned from attending Labour Party meetings or representing the party pending an investigation by the national executive committee, following a complaint about their behaviour.
The suspensions bring the number of Labour councillors suspended from the party in Liverpool to nine.
The Labour Party was invited to comment.
‘People up and down the country are asking whose side is the Labour government on and coming up with the answer: not workers,’ Unite general secretary Sharon Graham says
