Posted by Chris
The Mail on Sunday reports that Ed Miliband is behind secret moves to get more money for Labour by increasing the Councillors levy and "Labour's frontbench team has called for increases in wages paid to Councillors, which would benefit the party by resulting in an increase in the value of the new levy."
This of course is the same Labour Party who have for years claimed that Redcar and Cleveland allowances were "obscene" yet still claimed every penny. They promised there would be no increase in them then promptly increased them.
It is not the levy I am concerned about. What people do with their own money is their own business. It is the fact that they secretly propose increasing allowances to benefit the party.
Labour in this area have always used allowances to claim the moral high ground. When they went up in 2008 it was as a result of an independent review of allowances which was commissioned under Labour control but came into force during the Lib Dem/Con/Ind Coalition and they spent years condemning the resulting increases as "obscene" but have claimed every penny of them ever since.
Then there was the saga of the Labour Leader's refusal to accept a huge pay rise resulting in that fact being reported over and over again in the local press. The recommendation for the increase in the Leader's Allowance was made by the Independent Renumeration Panel at the request of senior Labour Councillors - see previous posting on the subject.
Local Lib Dems have always said that Councillors should not decide their own allowances. It should be completely independent without any involvement of those who benefit from it.
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