Councillor faces formal proceedings
AGLASGOW councillor bidding to become Scottish Labour deputy leader is to face disciplinary action after he refused to vote on his own party’s budget plans.
Formal proceedings will be taken against Councillor Matt Kerr after he walked out on last Thursday’s budget meeting.
As he broke the whip, the Cardonald representative said that he could not vote on any of the four party’s budget proposals.
He slammed central government for imposing more than 10 years of cuts to the city before he took to the door. He said: “£50million of cuts to the city is bad enough, but it comes on the back of 13 years of cuts to this city and it’s the cumulative effect that is doing irreversible damage to our communities.
“People out there are understandably becoming alienated from the political process because they see, and we’ve heard repeatedly today, talk of the administration.
“We didn’t stand for election to be administrators and we certainly didn’t stand for election to be administrators of cuts that we know are doing serious damage to our communities.”
He called on elected members to stand up to central government in an effort to fight cuts.
He added: “We are being bullied by another layer of government that relies on us being an arm’s length organisation to deliver cuts without responsibility where it lies.
“It leaves us taking the responsibility and facing that every day in our surgeries and in our inboxes. That is not acceptable.
“That is not a respectful relationship, it is a bullying relationship.
What do you do with bullies? You stand up to bullies. That’s the only way bullies are defeated.”
He added: “I cannot in any good conscience vote for anything that has been proposed here today and it’s not because I want to disrespect anybody who has put in hard work to create these budgets.”
In an email seen by the Glasgow Times, Labour councillors in the city were informed the following day of the action being taken against him.
An 11th-hour budget deal was eventually drawn up between Glasgow City Council’s SNP administration and the Greens.
The last-minute deal constructed by the two groups will save more than £42m with council tax rising by 6.64 per cent.
Labour’s city finance spokesman, Malcom Cunning expressed he was “hugely disappointed” with Councillor Kerr’s decision not to support his party.
He said: “You broke the group whip, indulged in personal grandstanding and gifted the SNP an attack line before walking out and leaving your Labour colleagues to deal with the consequences.”
Upon breaking the Labour whip, Councillor Kerr could face dismissal from the party.
The Labour Party could not provide comment.