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Lib Dems left red-faced by cuts motions
RULING Liberal Democrats at Sheffield Council faced embarrassment as all other parties ganged together to pass motions criticising Government cuts.
Council leader Paul Scriven's party has only 41 of 84 councillors and was outvoted by the 40 Labour, two Green and lone Independent councillors in two motions.
One was about the Chancellor's spending review and another specifically hitting out at "unfair" plans to end child benefit for high earners.
In the first successful motion, Labour deputy leader and finance spokesman Bryan Lodge claimed cuts would "hit the poor hardest" and were being made "too far, too fast".
Lib Dems unsuccessfully proposed an amendment in which the critical sentences would have been replaced with condemnation of the previous Labour Government leaving "spiralling debts" and calling the cuts "tough but unfortunately necessary".
The second, by Labour leader Julie Dore, criticised plans to end child benefit for people earning the top rate of tax. Households where both parents work with a joint income higher than a top rate taxpayer would be entitled to benefit.
The motion, backed by Green Party councillors Jillian Creasy and Rob Murphy, and Independent Frank Taylor, "resolves to write to the Prime Minister on behalf of Sheffield to express these concerns." It calls the move an "attack on the welfare state".
Lib Dems said it was morally wrong for high earners to be "subsidised at a time of austerity".
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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