In response to news that the National Labour Party were planning to force out the Leader of Birmingham Labour & install a new leader by means of a selection panel, Cllr Robert Alden, Leader of the Opposition & Birmingham Local Conservatives, (Cons, Erdington) said:
“What the Labour Party in London have finally woken up to will be of no surprise to the residents of Birmingham. Dysfunctional and chaotic leadership leading to failing services and spiralling costs, streets piled with rubbish, council tenants forced to live in damp and mouldy homes, children with additional needs put at risk and unable to get their legal rights to appropriate education, pothole ridden roads, and ever-increasing council tax and other charges.
The sad truth is though, that none of this matters to Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour as much as the damage it does to his party’s ‘brand’. As the largest local authority in the country, it is certainly true that the infighting and incompetence gives a powerful insight into what life would be like under a Labour Government, but the irony here is that Sir Keir’s Labour Party response to the crisis gives an even more stark and direct indication as to how his premiership would govern; overly centralised and antidemocratic decision making that ignores the wishes of local areas.
There is no doubt that Birmingham residents deserve better than the Birmingham Labour Administration, but in a democracy that is a decision for Brummies at an election, not the politburo of the London-centric Labour Party.
It is also astounding that the Labour Party say that the Birmingham Labour Group is so dysfunctional that they cannot organise a single meeting and internal election of their group leadership yet expect Brummies to put up with these same Councillors running the city for another 3 years!”
