Labour suspends councillors amid Liverpool budget row

Liverpool Council are to meet on Wednesday to set the budget for next year

The Labour party has suspended six councillors who said they "cannot vote for cuts" in a council budget.

Liverpool City Council said it needed to save £34m in spending next year, which the city mayor previously described as "eye-watering".

The councillors said the city faced "brutal cuts" and would not support the changes "as a matter of personal conscience and political judgement".

Labour said the council was set to make "tough decisions".

Alan Gibbons, Alfie Hincks, Alison Clarke, Lindsey Melia, Rona Heron and Joanne Calvert said they had "no choice" but to vote against the budget, which is to be set on Wednesday.

The six councillors, who were suspended on Monday, will still be able to vote on the budget - but will have the Labour whip removed.

Mr Gibbons told BBC Radio Merseyside it pained him to speak out about his party, but said "if you have principles, you cannot put them to one side".

City Mayor Joanne Anderson said the council needed to be "financially prudent"

Measures being considered by the Labour-run council include:

• A £40 annual charge for green bin collections

• Reviews of school transport demand, controlled parking zones and services, individual high cost care packages and subsidies for externally-run libraries

• A charge to private landlords and social housing providers for pest control

• Increasing revenue from filming, cruise liners and events

• A management restructure

In a statement, Mr Gibbons said the group were "prepared to accept the consequences".

He said they had attempted to draw up proposals with a no-cuts alternative, but that was rejected.

Mr Gibbons added that they could not accept cuts to social care and transport or the failure to secure community-run libraries and believed the proposed green bins charge was a "retrograde step at a time of environmental crisis".

"We cannot accept that the recommended level of funds held in reserve for 2022/3 should rise by £10.7m when the city faces brutal cuts," he said.

Mayor Joanne Anderson defended the budget and said the council needed to be "financially prudent".

In a tweet, Ms Anderson said the authority had yet not felt the full effects of Brexit and the economic impact of Covid.

She added the reserves may be needed for energy cost rises and Ukrainian refugees.

There are currently three other independent former Labour councillors on the council.

It is not yet clear whether the nine will become a formal group, but if they did, they would form a significant opposition to Labour, which has run the city council since 2010.

A Labour party spokesman said the city faced "unprecedented challenges" following the pandemic.

"The people of Liverpool expect leadership and the Labour council is set to make some tough decisions," he said.

He added that the budget made sure the most vulnerable were shielded from the cuts.

"Given the reality of what our city faces, now is not the time to lose focus on what matters to the people of Liverpool," he said.

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