Labour face ‘meltdown’ after Glasgow Council budget vote
Gordon Matheson: rebels should examine their conscience. Picture: Robert Perry
THE bitter political battle to control Glasgow has exploded into public after Labour won a knife-edge vote to pass its budget for the city, amid SNP claims that a raft of resignations showed its rival was “in meltdown”.
Amid angry exchanges and claims of backroom bullying, the ruling Labour group squeezed through its spending plans by 40 votes to 38.
The vote came after a slew of Labour councillors who have been deselected prior to May’s council elections resigned prior to the vote yesterday in protest.
In a dramatic afternoon, it appeared initially that there would be enough of them to inflict a defeat on Labour, as the SNP, Tories and Lib Dems united behind alternative budget plans.
One of the rebels, Anne Marie Millar, claimed the future of her own son’s apprenticeship was raised by one Labour councillor as he sought to convince her to back the budget.
She continued to vote against the budget plans, but said that she had felt “intimidated and bullied”.
Councillor Gordon Matheson, the Labour leader of the council, expressed “delight” last night that he had come through the day, after admitting earlier that there was “pain and hurt and division” within the group.
However, one of those who has quit, Pollok councillor Tommy Morrison, said “it’s the start of the death throes” of the city council administration. Meanwhile, the SNP said Mr Matheson should resign.
The bitter divisions stem from a decision by Labour to deselect a number of their councillors ahead of May’s local government elections.
Those elections are expected to see a close contest between Labour and the SNP for control of the city, with the Nationalists hoping to repeat last year’s Holyrood success in the city.
In total, seven former Labour councillors decided to oppose the budget yesterday. But with other councillors reportedly being brought in by taxi in as the scale of the rebellion became clear, Labour managed to get the votes in, narrowly beating the coalition of Labour rebels, SNP, Lib Dems and the sole Tory councillor.
Last night, Mr Matheson accused his opponents of seeking to “cobble together” a budget for “narrow political interests and vanity”.
“They even wanted to cut back on the maintenance of our cherished parks at a time when we are working hard to help them recover from a season of wild storms,” he claimed.
But, in what promises to be the opening of a fierce political battle over the coming months, the SNP said Mr Matheson had been humiliated by the Labour rebellion.
James Dornon, an SNP MSP and Glasgow councillor, said: “It is a desperate result for Gordon Matheson. He should be considering his position, and if I were him I would be resigning from the position.”
Mrs Millar claimed she had acted over the deselection decision which, she claimed, was made by a “clique” of party officials in London and Glasgow.
Speaking after the debate, she said that she had been approached during the afternoon by one of her former colleagues.
“I said give me a good reason to vote and he raised the education programmes we have,” she said.
“He mentioned the apprenticeship programme [run by arm’s-length company City Building] and he said, ‘Your son has come through that’. Then he said, ‘I am on the board’. I said, ‘Wait a minute, are you making a threat?’ He said, ‘Oh no’. But I felt threatened and intimidated.”
Conservative member David Meikle added: “This result is a major setback for Labour and ensures that May’s election could see the end of Labour rule in Glasgow.”
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Comments
There are 186 comments to this article
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The Trogg
Saturday, February 11, 2012 at 08:58 PM147 Taigh na Croiche Friday, February 10, 2012 at 01:10 PM The Trogg - its a shame that Unionists are now resorting to racism to advance their cause. Many Poles have been here since WWII and their children are as Scottish as any of us. -- Many other Europeans have settled here and had kids here. They're as entitled to their opnions as anyone else. In a nutshell the xenophobic undertones of your messages just reinforce the perception that the Unionists are 'sinister' and 'backward'. By comparison, most pro-independence supporters seem very inclusive and progressive. I understand that you are an activist for independendece - pleaswe to do nt riled ujp go about your canvassing in a a reasonable matter, I have been an activist for more than 5o years and you decided to deride me as a Unionistl Please cool down a little son, you need to put your case across in a calm and intelligent maanner - not yelling and scxreaming and painting your compatriiots as unionist scum. I have been a member of the movement since 1965 (when I was 16) and joined the party in 1969 and have unwaveringly supported my ideal since that time. What we really don;'t needi in the struggle for independence is marxists, like yourself, who really don't understand the history of the independence movement. By the way, I am looking for a serious apology form you.
Charles P
Saturday, February 11, 2012 at 12:10 AMFerrets in a sack! Tammany Hall! Labour 'staffer' sent up from London to de-select Glasgow Labour Councillors? Cameron isolates us in Europe, Lib Dems scared to open their mouths in case they make things worse for themselves. What in Gods' name are we doing in this cesspit? Roll on 2014 when the Scottish People get off their knees and walk away, where is our Pride?
samcoldstream
Friday, February 10, 2012 at 08:10 PMAfter yesterday's events at the City Chambers, James Keir Hardie must be burling in his grave! What happened to the founding principles of the Independent Labour Party and the great things it did for Glasgow? IF, the infighting continues in the Labour group on Glasgow City Council, and it loses control of the City at the forthcoming Local Council Elections to the Nationalists then it will be the end of Labour hegemony in Scotland. It will have deserted the working people of this country.
Elderly
Friday, February 10, 2012 at 07:41 PMIt's a pity they were unsuccessful in getting rid of Matheson and his bunch of cronies in Glasgow. This is the Council boss that didn't want the community tax to be frozen, he didn't want cuts, his solution was "let's charge the tax payers more". I hope the Glaswegians are more successful next time.
Moniker Lewinsky
Friday, February 10, 2012 at 06:38 PMI wonder who threatened Ms Millar. Time will tell....so will someone at the Chambers the place leaks like a sieve.
Kinghob
Friday, February 10, 2012 at 06:30 PMYearsof encouraging mediocrity and hiding scandals with a loved up cooperative media take their toll as this is impossible to sneakily hide from the public-labour deserve everything that the voters give them it's been in the post for years! (no pun!)
Lachie Mhor
Friday, February 10, 2012 at 06:27 PMGordon Matheson appears as a nice wee guy and no doubt his mummy thought the world of him. As the leader of the Labour Group he is about effective as a chocolate teapot. The deselection of persons not considered to be up to the job will no doubt be the final nail in his political coffin. They will have to find a leader from amongst their ranks who has integrity, powers of leadership and is an accomplished public orator. They are obviusly in deep trouble
Ron Greer
Friday, February 10, 2012 at 05:50 PMI see Grahamavoidski is still avoiding this thread, but I'm sure that posters will realise that filling in Eric expense claims is very time consuming and predicting a Labour landslide in Glasgow in the May elections is going to take longer than usual.
Kinghob
Friday, February 10, 2012 at 05:41 PM"................................was'nt it great watching those Unionistas making complete fools of themselfs on Newsnicht"...............yes it was, they came across as so idiotic especially the 'senior' labour councillor who thought that the budget was an enormous success as if he was asked on to defend some great victory during labour's long bygone heyday!
Kinghob
Friday, February 10, 2012 at 05:37 PMLabour in Glasgow have been on a meltdown for years-it is just that even the big softy scared of the can of worms it would open by what passes for a media in Scotland have tried to play it down-but this situation has been a long time coming...........................................delaying obfuscating caressing labour as the purcell affair broke and boy was that a scandal was always going to bite them on the bottom.
Gibbo
Friday, February 10, 2012 at 05:26 PMGood evening Ladies and Gentlemen, here is the good news, Tories have gone, Libdems are going and Labour are not far behind, where are all the Labourites on here who says that they will recover, if you are a bully then you are not welcome in politics the people tell you that, if you don't come up to scratch with your promises then the people will also tell you where to go, I really can hardly wait for May.
Niebiosa tam sa naprawde nieskrzydlowe ludzie tam
Friday, February 10, 2012 at 04:55 PM#173 spot on !
Niebiosa tam sa naprawde nieskrzydlowe ludzie tam
Friday, February 10, 2012 at 04:54 PMSounds like SLAB's bullying & intimidation tactics, Does yer Granny get "Meals on Wheels" ? Oh, I'm the chef, by the way. Does she usually keep good health ? Oh I'm only asking mind !
Phil C
Friday, February 10, 2012 at 04:54 PMThis thread is straying from it's root though. Labour are a nasty, in-fighting, self-serving, dishonest bunch of incompetent no-hope trade union and UK union lackeys. People thick enough to still vote for them? Well that would be unpublishable!
allymax
Friday, February 10, 2012 at 04:20 PMThere's something really strange going on at New-snot; they have put up this story, but whenever anybody posts a comment encouraging criminal and fiscal action, they are 'steered away' from that line of discussion by other posters comments. It's like the Labour HQ have insurgents that are in disguise as SNP supporters on their site. Very very strange! Quite a bit like this site really ! Mrs Millar, go tae ra polis !
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