A senior Conservative councillor has accused the Lib Dems and Labour of thrashing out “dodgy” and “secret” deals behind closed doors in a bid to team up and run South Gloucestershire Council. Cllr Sam Bromiley, who was cabinet member for children and young people before last week’s local elections, said the private discussions between the two former opposition groups would weaken the public’s faith in politics.
Labour and the Lib Dems have dismissed the claims. The Tories, who were in charge of the authority for the last eight years with a majority in the chamber, lost almost a third of their seats at the polls on Thursday, May 4, dropping from 33 to 23 councillors on a devastating night for the party both locally and across the country.
They are still the largest group on the council, having more elected members than either the Lib Dems who have 20 and Labour’s 17, while there is also one independent. But with the authority now under No Overall Control, talks began over the weekend between the two centre/left groups to try to strike a deal to form a new administration as a coalition, with their combined total of 37 seats passing the threshold needed of 31 for a majority.
Read more: Local election results in full amid 'desperately sad' night for the Tories
The Lib Dems have reelected Cllr Claire Young and Cllr Maggie Tyrrell as group leader and deputy leader respectively, while Labour have chosen deputy leader Cllr Ian Boulton as their new leader replacing Pat Rooney, who did not stand for reelection as a councillor, with new Kingswood Cllr Leigh Ingham as deputy. Speaking on BBC1’s Politics West on Sunday, May 7, Frampton Cotterell ward Cllr Young said: “Clearly the electorate rejected the Conservatives in many seats.
“We are already in discussions to try to find the best way forward for the residents of South Gloucestershire. We’ve had some initial discussions with the Labour Party.
“I’m obviously not going to go into any detail about what we discussed because it’s confidential, and I can’t be expected to announce that live on air, but we need to find a way forward. The policies are important but four years ago nobody had ‘how to help the area through a global pandemic’ in their manifesto.
“So it’s also about establishing a working relationship with trust and respect and looking at how the council functions. People kept saying to us on the doorstep that the Conservative council had been out of touch and hadn’t listened to local people, and we want to work with local people.”
Cllr Bromiley (Conservative, Parkwall & Warmley) said: “I’m quite concerned hearing about these dodgy deals being done in backrooms outside of the public eye.” Host David Garmston said: “They might not be to your liking but they’re not dodgy, are they?”
Cllr Bromiley replied: “Well they might not be dodgy but these are secret deals being done, and this is where the public loses faith when it comes to politics where they’ve now got elected representatives, they don’t know what’s going to happen in the council. We were the largest party the last time this was the case – the Conservatives had a minority administration in the committee system.
“The Labour group when they launched their manifesto very proudly put out that they want a return to the committee system and that is an open way when it comes to No Overall Control to do that.” Asked by Mr Garmston whether Labour was “in smoke-filled rooms with beer and sandwiches with the Lib Dems”, Claire Hazelgrove, Labour’s parliamentary candidate for Filton & Bradley Stoke, said: “No, really not at all.
“As Claire rightly says it’s all being looked at and talked through right now but there is nothing dodgy about it whatsoever. You and the public will be the first to know because that’s what matters most, so we’ve got to make sure we are clear on that and people have confidence with what happens next in South Gloucestershire – it’s an exciting time.”
Asked what Labour would want in return for “propping up a Lib Dem administration”, she added: “We have very similar goals and views around a lot of things when it comes to tackling the climate emergency, when it comes to putting our people and places first, we want to make sure that tackling the cost-of-living crisis is up there – we’ve been talking about it regionally and nationally non-stop.” Cllr Young said: “We were clear in our manifesto about what our key priorities were – tackling climate change, supporting people struggling with the cost-of-living crisis, fixing our broken transport system and bringing back local decision-making so that your local councillors that you elected make decisions about your area.”
Both Cllr Young and Cllr Boulton confirmed to the Local Democracy Reporting Service on Tuesday (May 9) that talks on forming a joint administration were still ongoing. The episode is available on BBC iPlayer here.
Read next:
What next for South Gloucestershire after ‘no overall control’ result in local elections
Local election results at South Gloucestershire Council listed in full ward by ward
Outgoing Tory council leader says results are 'clearly disappointing'
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