New Glasgow Labour leader stuck in Seville
The new leader of Scottish Labour in Glasgow has missed attending the first full council meeting in person.
During the first full council meeting, in which councillors vote for a Lord Provost and to appoint the leader of the council and other key committee positions, George Redmond voted remotely.
One source said it was clear Mrredmondwasinanairport when he was voting remotely and suggested that he may have been travelling back from Seville.
Rangers lost on penalties to Eintracht Frankfurt in the final of the Europa League in the Spanish city on Wednesday night. My sources in the council said Mr Redmond may have become stuck due to a cancelled flight following the match.
A Scottish Labour source confirmed the councillor had been in Seville.
In a piece for the Glasgow Times last week, Mr Redmond bemoaned the SNP leadership of Glasgow, saying Labour had the “energy, the drive and the hunger to be the champions that Glasgow desperately needs”.
Mr Redmond usurped former Labour leader in Glasgow, Malcolm Cunning, following the elections at the start of this month. In a vote, the Mr Redmond beat Mr Cunning 24 votes to 11.
It followed Labour falling just short of becoming the largest party in Scotland’s biggest city, finishing one seat behind the SNP.
It comes as it was confirmed Labour would run Fife Council as a minority administration for the next five years, with the backing of the Lib Dems and Conservatives. The deal pushes the SNP, the single biggest party within the local authority, into opposition.
The result was sealed at yesterday’s
meeting of the full council and has sparked outrage from the Nationalists, who branded it “political chicanery on an embarrassing scale.” But Councillor David Ross, who is the new council
leader, said it was the best outcome for the people of Fife. Labour previously ran a joint administration with the SNP, but that, said Mr Ross, was no longer viable.
Mr Ross said: “We cannot
support a party whose government is seeking to destroy local government and won’t stand up to that threat of centralisation."