After 5 Years of Labour’s bias, the Conservatives, Greens and Lib Dems have formed an alliance on the Greater London Assembly to exclude Labour members from chairing the Assembly committees that hold the Mayor to account.
Conservative member Andrew Boff will chair the Assembly with Keith Prince as his deputy.
The Conservatives will chair six of the committees. The Greens will chair three committees and the Lib Dems will chair two.
The Labour members won’t chair or have a majority on any committee. This will mean that the committees will be more effective in holding Mayor Sadiq Khan to account.
Not before time, Khan has had an amazingly soft time from the Assembly over the last 5 years, but that is now going to stop.
However, Labour blasted the Greens and Lib Dems for “getting into bed with the Tories” and accused them of forming a “coalition” and “betraying their progressive values”.
Len Duvall, leader of the London Assembly Labour group, said: “Just a week ago, Green and Lib Dem candidates were standing on supposedly progressive platforms – a week later, they’re in bed with the Tories.
“They’re betraying the very people who put them in City Hall, and they’re betraying their progressive values. They say they want to reflect the political balance of the Assembly yet they’re supporting each other’s preferences and not Labour’s.
“What we essentially have here is a new coalition. It’s disappointing to see the Lib Dems and Greens backing the Tories this way – they had a choice and they’ve decided to go with those who want to weaken our public services.”
Mr Duvall said Labour did not have to chair any committees to “play a full part in scrutiny”.
Taxi Leaks Extra bit:
It stands to reason that if you have a Labour mayor, then any meeting to hold the mayor to account should not be chaired by his own party.
Same again, if it was a conservative in the position.
This new coalition, is most definitely a step in the right direction for the sake of democracy
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