Plymouth Labour has hit back after Reform UK, the Conservatives, and the Green group all criticised the administration following Monday’s Full Council meeting, with the party accusing its main opposition of failing to properly scrutinise major decisions.
Councillor Jemima Laing, deputy leader of Plymouth City Council’s Labour administration, said Cllr Steve Ricketts and the Reform group had “ample opportunity to scrutinise and challenge this administration” at Monday’s meeting, where councillors considered two significant items setting out how the council spends public money.
She said Reform had recently appointed a shadow cabinet to scrutinise the administration, adding: “We welcome scrutiny, and we were ready to defend our record.” But she said neither Ricketts, Reform’s finance lead, nor any member of its shadow cabinet spoke on either item, calling it “a huge dereliction of their duty as the main opposition on the council.”
Laing told Plymouth Post, in an on the record message, that Reform councillors had been “so busy plotting to remove Cllr Ricketts, their leader” that they were unable to make any meaningful contribution to the meeting. “They’re letting down the people in our city who elected them to hold us to account, and they are simply not up to the job,” Laing said.
Her comments follow Ricketts’ accusation that Labour had been “filibustering” and deliberately running down the clock to prevent Reform motions being debated, a claim Laing rejected.
Photographs © Wayne Perry / Plymouth Post