A newly-elected Green member of Barnet Council has criticised both the Labour and Conservative groups and accused them of creating “second-class residents”.
The comments came from councillor Charli Thompson in her first speech to full council on Tuesday (19th).
Her remarks are a response to the deal struck between Labour and Tory groups which effectively reduced the power of the only councillor at the local authority not from the two major parties.
Both Labour and the Conservatives won 31 seats at the poll on Thursday, 7th May. Both, therefore, were one councillor short of a majority. Despite this, neither group was willing to form a deal with Cllr Thompson, the council’s only Green representative.
Barnet Labour blamed “significant policy differences” preventing negotiations with the Greens. Their Tory counterparts, meanwhile, kept the door firmly closed, citing “unbridgeable” differences on policy issues.
In the end the two major groups brokered a deal that saw incumbent council leader Barry Rawlings keep his post, in exchange for greater Tory influence at the local authority.
Cllr Thompson was the only person to vote against Rawlings’ reappointment, with the Conservatives deciding to abstain.
Addressing full council, Cllr Thompson said she had approached both political groups following the election. This, she said, was done “constructively and in good faith to discuss how we might work differently in a council with no overall control, including how the significant number of residents who voted Green could be meaningfully represented within the council’s structures and processes”.
She added: “I was this disappointed but, unfortunately, not unsurprised, that this was met with immediate rejection.”
“Leadership is about political choices,” Cllr Thompson continued. “It is about whether we embrace scrutiny and co-operation or retreat further into the same closed and clique culture that has contributed to public disillusion in the first place.
“It seems that we are in for more of the same with the legacy of the Conservatives and Labour now teaming up to continue the status quo.”
Cllr Thompson also criticised constitutional changes that were passed by the council this week, saying they would “significantly weaken public challenge” while “further restricting the ability of ungrouped councillors to meaningfully participate in democratic processes”.
She accused the Labour and Conservative groups of colluding to “effectively create first-class and second-class councillors and, by extension, first-class and second-class residents”.
The Green representative for Woodhouse ward is a carer and has a disability. Cllr Thompson says she has also been a campaigner for disabled rights. Despite this, her request to serve on the local authority’s adults and health overview and scrutiny sub-committee was denied.
Defending the Labour-Conservative deal deal this week, Cllr Rawlings said: “Barnet residents voted for a moderate, responsible council which brings people together for the greater good. That is the spirit in which we will govern.”
He added: “In difficult national circumstances it is an honour to have been returned for a second term. We will build on the successes of our first term – from action on fly-tipping and revamping the borough’s CCTV, to securing new social housing and becoming a borough of sanctuary.”
Following the meeting Barnet Conservatives said they had acted “in the interests of residents and to ensure the council had stable leadership”.
The group argued that “councillors’ primary duty is to serve the best interests of residents, not to engage in political games that risk instability and disruption to local services”.
Referring to the agreement made with Labour, they explained: “While we will not form the next administration, we have secured a strong opposition position from which we can robustly hold Labour to account.
“To reflect the new political balance, both groups have agreed a set of working principles, facilitated by the chief executive and monitoring officer.”
The Labour-Conservative agreement is not an official coalition. It nevertheless means that Labour will still lead the council, albeit as a minority administration after losing their majority at the local election earlier this month.
The deal includes the appointment of Conservative opposition leader Peter Zinkin as a non-executive member of the cabinet.
Labour members also agreed to give the Conservatives “enhanced arrangements” which, the council says, will give the group “more meaningful opportunities to scrutinise decisions before they are taken”.
This includes Conservative chairs for most overview and scrutiny sub-committees, as well as the creation of two new sub-committees “to scrutinise finance and growth and environment matters”.
It also means Tory councillors will now chair the governance, audit, risk management and standards committee and the pension fund committee. In exchange, Labour was able to cling on to its control of decision-making committees such as planning and licensing.
Joe Ives reports on Barnet, Enfield and Haringey as part of the Local Democracy Reporting Service, covering local politics, council decisions, regeneration projects, crime, transport and other issues affecting residents.
