The Government has been accused of 'closing their eyes' to the damage caused by funding cuts, by Labour local government leaders.
Labour council leaders and mayors have published a joint statement accusing the Government of reducing spending to ‘intolerable’ levels while ‘attempting to lay the blame at the feet of local councillors’.
The statement read: ‘Cuts to local government are an attempt by the Conservative Government to push the blame for cuts down to local government while dismantling the welfare state.
‘Their forced sale of council homes – without funding replacements - further demonstrates their strategy to abdicate responsibility for the worst decisions they are making.'
Their comments came after prime minister David Cameron was earlier this month embroiled in a high-profile spat with his constituency county Oxfordshire CC. The prime minister caused controversy when he wrote a letter detailing his disappointment that the council was not ‘making back office savings and protecting the frontline’ when proposing cutbacks.
The comments were made by the party’s shadow chancellor John McDonnell, shadow transport secretary Lilian Greenwood, Lewisham mayor Steve Bullock, Liverpool mayor Joe Anderson (pictured), Manchester City Council leader Richard Leese, Nottingham City Council deputy leader Graham Chapman, Tameside MBC leader Kieran Quinn, Stevenage BC leader Sharon Taylor and Derbyshire CC leader Anne Western.
The Department for Communities and Local Government has been approached for comment.
