Rugby Labour embarrass Ed Miliband with spending plans

On Thursday 11 December Labour's leader, Ed Miliband, finally made a speech about how he would deal with the gap between public expenditure on the one hand and tax receipts on the other. All labour policies would be "costed, credible and funded" he said.

Unfortunately an advance copy of his speech was not provided to Rugby's Labour councillors. On Tuesday 9 December Cllr Any Coles (Lab, Newbold & Brownsover) and Cllr Steve Birkett (Lab, New Bilton) had proposed changes to Rugby's Council Tax Reduction scheme which would have cost local residents about £75,000. No way of funding this change was identified.

We expect that councillors Coles and Birkett will now be required to attend for "re-education" at Labour's national headquarters in Brewers Green, London.

Links

For Ed Miliband's spending restraint promise see http://news.sky.com/story/1389675/miliband-in-costed-credible-and-funded-pledge .

Rugby Town Hall - where the unfunded spending proposal was made

For Rugby Labour's unfunded spending plans see - http://rugbylibdems.org.uk/en/article/2014/975589/labour-rebel-against-leader-over-council-tax .