The leader of Liverpool Council’s largest opposition group hasn’t ruled out working with a possible new party composed of Labour ‘rebels’.
After seven members of the largest party on the local authority broke ranks to vote against the annual budget, Liberal Democrat group leader Cllr Richard Kemp admitted that a split among his party’s rivals “can’t be anything but good” a year away from all-out elections. This week, members of the seven rebel councillors said they didn’t defy the whip during this month’s budget meeting “for the sake of it” and hit back at claims made by Mayor Joanne Anderson that they had “their own reasons” for going against party lines.
Veteran opposition leader Cllr Kemp said he had expected further disciplinary action by the party after a public act of rebellion. He said: “What surprises me is that the Labour party hasn’t taken stronger action over some of this. I say that as a member of a party that doesn’t whip our members.
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“Here we’ve got a vote against the Labour budget, which is the most important vote a councillor can cast all year, they’ve had a go at the party as a whole and then they’ve been critical of the Mayor’s own behaviour. Any of that would be actionable within the context of any party.”
The so-called rebels - Alan Gibbons, Lindsay Melia, Rona Heron, Alfie Hincks, Joanne Calvert, George Knibb and Alison Clarke - opted to go against the plans that included a new £40 annual charge for green waste collections, a maximum Council Tax increase of 2.99% and cuts to the social care budget.
Informal discussions have been held regarding a potential new group being set up by the councillors - who were all suspended by the Labour Party - and Cllr Kemp did not categorically rule out potentially forming an alliance.
He said: “They vociferously opposed the budget and conspired together to vote against it. I can’t see an alternative to these forming another party like there was in the 1990s. Funnily enough, George Knibb was part of that back then.
“I’m happy to work with any party as long as we agree on issues and behaviour. I’ve tried to work positively forward both publicly and privately and we will continue to work with others to do that.
“Currently, we’ve said with the Labour group, we will support where we can and criticise where we need to. A split in your biggest opposing party can’t be anything but good. With the boundary commission review coming, I think there’ll be a lot of people looking over their shoulders.”
Cllr Kemp added that splits within the Labour group could open the way for an improved performance by his party in next year’s all out elections. He said: “We’re a year out from an election, who knows what could happen? We doubled our number of wards last time.
“People like an outsider and are willing to change, the facts speak for themselves.”
