‘This discussion about waste is generally misleading, we’ve had 14 years of Tory austerity which has cut spending to the absolute bone.’
Reform councillor Laila Cunningham claimed that Reform councils had saved £100 million since May, and that there were billions to be saved by cutting diversity, equality and inclusion (DEI) and sustainability initiatives.
The Politics Live presenter questioned her on the fact that eight Reform councils have indicated they may need to raise council tax, despite the party’s promises to cut waste.
Cunningham dismissed this, saying: “This is all rumours from the press,” even though senior council officials have suggested tax increases are likely.
The Reform councillor in Westminster claimed that Reform had saved around £100 million across 12 councils, over the last five months.
She said that in Derbyshire, 26,000 potholes were reduced to 2,000 in five months, and claimed that 75% of complaints about damage to car tyres have “gone down to zero”.
Investigative journalist Paul Holden challenged Cunningham’s claims, saying: “I just think this discussion about waste is generally misleading, we’ve had 14 years of Tory austerity which has cut spending to the absolute bone.
“It’s a pipe dream to talk about that there’s an enormous amount of waste.”
Holden cited Paul Johnson from the Institute of Fiscal Studies’ comments, stating that council finances have been “cut to the absolute bone, if you cut anymore you’re going into the most basic services”.
Labour MP Emily Darlington, who was deputy leader of Milton Keynes City Council before becoming an MP, asked Cunningham: “Where would you cut?”.
Cunningham said “I’m not running the council”, but stated that when she was a senior crown prosecutor in the Crown Prosecution Service large sums of money were spent on sustainability and DEI.
“We are lawyers with computers, we do not need a sustainability department, we did have a DEI department,” she said.
The Reform councillor claimed that sustainability and DEI are costing the taxpayer “billions”.
Using her experience running a council, Darlington explained: “There’s no money after 14 years of austerity, and in fact that’s backed up by your ‘Doge’ expert who went into Kent County Council and said exactly the same thing.”
The Labour MP for Milton Keynes added that “the money you’re talking about fixing potholes, is actually money from the Labour government that’s just been given to councils.”
On DEI and sustainability, Cunningham insisted there was lots of money to be saved, but when pressed for figures, she admitted: “I don’t have the numbers.” Darlington replied: “This is just like one refrain after another.”
Cunningham then set out a list of savings Reform in Kent have made, including £2.5 million from the council’s home to school transport budget and £7.5 million saved by 2030 by scrapping the transitioning of KCC vehicles to electric vehicles.
Darlington responded: “I have to ask when you’re not going to spend on capital, which would have been your cars what are you going to end up spending on revenue?”.
Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward
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