Tories set to run Liverpool after Government inspectors report back

TORIES could be running Liverpool for the first time since the 1960s this week with reports the Conservative government is likely to send in commissioners to take over the city council following corruption allegations.

An investigation by Max Caller, a local government inspector, is expected to be made public this week. Inspectors were sent in by Local Government Secretary Robert Jenrick in December following the arrest of five men including the city’s elected mayor, Labour’s Joe Anderson, who was held on suspicion of conspiracy to commit bribery and witness intimidation.

None of those arrested have been charged, with a Merseyside Police investigation continuing into building and development contracts in the city. Mr Anderson, 63, denies any wrongdoing.

It is only the fourth time commissioners have been sent in to run a local authority and never before on the scale of taking over a city the size of Liverpool.

But Whitehall commissioners could now be set to run the city’s day-to-day operations, according to The Sunday Telegraph.

Liverpool has become a byword for anti-Tory sentiment, the city’s last Conservative MP was 38 years ago and the last Conservative councillor lost his seat 23 years ago.

The, leader of the Liberal Democrats on the council, Richard Kemp, said: “It’s ironic that the Tories may end up remotely running Liverpool 25 years after the last Tory left the council.”

Liverpool city centre has seen a huge surge of investment in building developments in the last decade.

The focus of Mr Caller’s investigation is on property management, regeneration, highways, contracts and planning at the council over the past five years.

Mr Jenrick is expected to make a statement to Parliament this week that will spell out the findings in the report and what action he intends to take next.