Following the local elections, the first act of Ealing’s Liberal Democrat councillors was to put forward an amendment seeking to increase the Lib Dems taxpayer funded Special Responsibility Allowances. Labour and the Greens failed to challenge this, and it passed. Only the Conservatives opposed this and can be trusted to be careful with your money.
Conservative councillors, at this meeting and prior to the elections, when Labour put forward plans to increase SRAs, consistently voted against a pay rise for councillors, arguing that the elected body should not be feathering its own nest.
Whan the time came on Tuesday evening for the new council to confirm SRAs via a recorded vote (where councillors vote individually) every Labour councillor abstained, perhaps out of sheer embarrassment.
Labour as the controlling party summarily axed SRAs for other opposition parties. This defunding of opposition groups was done without consultation and negates the Council Leader’s stated desire for collegiality and cooperation across the Council.
Conservatives argue that Tuesday’s behaviour by Ealing’s Labour, Liberal Democrat and Green councillors was confusing and fell well short of basic standards of transparency.
