For immediate release
Rt Hon David Blunkett, MP for Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough, today condemned the Liberal Democrat leader of Sheffield City Council, Paul Scriven, for failing to sign a letter from Lib Dem council leaders across the country warning of major cutbacks because of the Tory-led coalition’s reductions in local government funding.
Mr Blunkett spoke after the coalition’s cuts were forced through Parliament on Wednesday.
Mr Blunkett said: “Here we have 88 leading Liberal Democrats in local government – 17 of them council leaders – condemning the cuts and warning of the massive impact on essential services ... but total silence from Paul Scriven, who is in complete denial.
“More worrying than his failure to speak up and defend the city of Sheffield is the way in which he is delaying decisions on cuts to beyond the elections at the beginning of May. In Parliament, the Conservative Secretary of State, Eric Pickles, was able to use Paul Scriven’s claim to be making ‘only’ 250 people redundant, when everyone knows that hundreds more jobs will be going once the Lib Dems come clean on the extent of the cuts to be made.
“With 70% of the City Council budget going on the wages of essential staff, it is impossible to make cuts of £70 million this year without devastating services and making many more redundancies than is currently being admitted.
“ ‘The later the cuts are made, the more severe they will have to be.’ Those are the words of government ministers and Lib Dem apologists. Instead of tackling the problems head-on and being honest with the people of Sheffield, the Lib Dems locally are deliberately keeping their heads down and, quite disgracefully, putting off critical decisions which they know will have to be made by whoever wins the Council elections on May 5.”
ENDS
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