Labour in control of Wirral as Lib Dems abstain on crucial vote

May 24 2011 By Liam Murphy

WIRRAL’S Lib-Dems put Labour back in power in the borough, after abstaining on a crucial vote on the council leadership.

Through the meeting on Monday evening the party was heavily criticised by a series of Tory councillors for not backing their leader, Jeff Green, to stay at the helm.

The Lib-Dems hold the balance of power, despite being reduced to just nine councillors following the elections earlier this month.

Labour have 30 while the Tories remain on 27, the same number they had when the Lib-Dems joined them to form a coalition in 2010.

But Lib-Dem leader Tom Harney said the coalition between the two parties had failed to obtain a mandate from the electorate which saw his party decimated.

Instead, the party abstained on votes to remove Cllr Green and then install Labour leader Steve Foulkes as the leader of the council, on the basis that his party had the most seats, although still four short of the 34 needed for an overall majority.

Cllr Harney told the meeting at Wallasey town hall: "We do not have a mandate to continue running the council."

He said they had "done no deals with Labour" and the next year will be "no easy life" for the party which will lead the administration and said his party will be "casting votes on an issue by issue basis".

He said: "It remains to be seen if the Labour party has any coherent plans for taking the borough forward."

He said: "Labour will have to work hard to do things the right way if they want our support on any issues and we will hold them to account when they get it wrong. The ball is in their court and they must respond in detail.

"We will not stand for Labour blaming the coalition government for their own short comings. The challenges this Council face require imagination, creativity and flexibility of thought."

Jeff Green, followed by many of his party, expressed dismay that the Lib- Dems had chosen not to continue their "Progressive Partnership" of the last 12 months and listed their achievements over that period.

He said: "I’m surprised and disappointed the Lib-Dem group have had a collective loss of self-confidence."

Accepting the leadership, Labour’s Steve Foulkes called on the other parties to help him convince the Government to give Wirral a "fairer" grant, saying the borough had lost £51m because of the way local authority money was distributed.

He said: "Why should we be inflicted with far greater cuts than, for example, Dorset.

"We lost £91 per head compared to Dorset, which lost £2. We got a raw deal."