The much-predicted collapse of the Brexit talks between Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn mirrors the demise of Sefton Council’s Labour-Tory 2008 coalition which controlled Southport and the rest of Sefton Borough for a short while a few years ago.
In both cases the uneasy arrangement lasted 42 days. In both cases, Labour and Tory got together excluding the Liberal Democrats. In the national talks this was because the Lib Dems want a People’s Vote on staying in the EU while Labour and Tories are echoing a milder form of Nigel Farage’s latest Brexit plans. In Sefton, it was because the Lib Dems would have nothing to do with Labour and Tory councillors unlawful plot to make the Council’s chief executive redundant and put their own man in his place.
When they were exposed and forced to abort their plans, Labour and the Tories kicked out the Lib Dems from chairing Sefton Council Scrutiny committees. In Sefton Council, unlike many other local authorities, Scrutiny of the Council’s activities is controlled by the ruling party. In Parliament, too, control over scrutiny of the executive is split evenly between the governing party and the opposition members.
Current Sefton boss Ian Maher was part of the Labour-Conservative reigning Cabinet but the leaders of Sefton’s short-lived two-party coalition were Paula Former Tory leader Paula Parry (above, left) and her Labour ‘oppo’ Peter Dowd, now MP for Bootle.
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