Crawley Labour Party - a lesson in hypocrisy

10.30.00pm UTC (GMT +0000) Fri 26th May 2006

Labour - Red Bull Alert

In 1974 Crawley Borough Council was created. Since then, until this year, it has been Labour run. In all that time Labour refused to allow any opposition Councillor to be Mayor or Deputy Mayor. Now that Labour no longer run Crawley (and are therefore an opposition party) they are happy for the Deputy Mayor to be an opposition Councillor - a Labour member of course.

Since 1974 there has been more than one Labour Councillor who has been Mayor or Deputy Mayor several times. It has not always been long serving Councillors who have done the job either.

Although all of them have for the most part done a good job in these roles it has prevented many good Conservative and Liberal/Lib Dem Councillors becoming Mayor or Deputy Mayor.

The Liberal Democrats believe that the importance of the Mayor - the first citizen of Crawley - should not be in the gift of one political party. That does not mean either Labour, or now Conservative, or even the Liberal Democrats. What is needed is a system that will ensure a fair and equitable sharing out of this important Office so that all the political parties get an opportunity to chose from any of their Councillors who the Mayor will be.

It can be done - and this is exactly the way that Liberal Democrat run Cambridge and Pendle Councils (to name just two) do.