Calls for Reform UK cabinet member to step down after 'most appalling tirade' at full council
Cllr Salter gave an unreserved apology for his comments - though not without some resistance
Hello and welcome to The Lancashire Lead.
To those of you expecting today’s edition to focus on the fallout from this week’s local government reorganisation announcement for Lancashire, please accept my sincere apologies.
I have dedicated the entirety of today’s Lancashire briefing to the topic and will continue to unpick the matter in future editions.
Instead, we look to the debate on a motion calling for proper recognition and support for the national inquiry examining the failures in protecting victims of child sexual exploitation by grooming gangs.
An amendment put forward by Progressive Lancashire led to a response from a Reform UK cabinet member that would later be described as ‘the most appalling tirade ever heard in a Council chamber’.
There are calls for him to resign or be removed. That has not happened. Before reporting on this matter, it’s important to state that there was no evidence put forward for the accusations made by the cabinet member and that the cabinet member himself later admitted he had overstepped the line.
His apology is here at the top - his original rant is in the main article below the briefing.
Lancashire briefing - LGR special
🌹 The government has explained its decision to split Lancashire into four new council areas under its local government reorganisation plans.
Local government secretary Steve Reed cited the importance of reflecting each county’s “distinct local identities”.
In a letter to leaders in Lancashire, he said: “My selected option creates new councils that are more clearly rooted in the distinct local identities across the area.
“I judge that the strength of this proposal lies in the fact that it provides for sensible geographies that will be more easily recognised by residents, encompassing Lancashire’s varied identities, including the post-industrial towns of ‘Pennine Lancashire’, the rural and market town areas of ‘North Lancashire’ and ‘South Lancashire’, and the coastal communities of the ‘Fylde Coast’.
“This configuration will better ensure that the different economic, social and cultural characteristics of these areas are meaningfully reflected in the priorities of these new councils.”
➡️ Concerns in East Lancashire stem from the idea that five local authorities with high deprivation will be put together. They are Blackburn with Darwen, Hyndburn, Pendle, Burnley and Rossendale.
Oliver Ryan, Labour MP for Burnley, told Reed in the Commons: “I can’t support this, Burnley will not stand for being part of greater Blackburn. The HQ of this new authority must not be in Blackburn.
“The accountable officer must not be a Blackburner, and our people, our bondholders, our culture, our businesses, and our communities cannot be steamrolled and forgotten in this way.”
Adnan Hussein, independent MP for Blackburn, said: “Many people will see these proposals as concentrating some of Lancashire’s most deprive communities into one authority while separating them from neighbouring areas that could strengthen its economic and financial base.”
⬆️ The North Lancashire plan - the grouping of Preston, Lancaster and Ribble Valley - has broadly been met with a positive response. It is, after all, what they all put forward.
But Sir Mark Hendrick, MP for Preston, made a rare public statement and told the Preston City Council leader: “From your publically expressed wishes for a “Greater Preston” in Dec 2024, we are now seeing the absorption of Preston and Central Lancashire into a new North Lancashire Authority. A reverse takeover if there ever was one. This is a ‘fig leaf’ of a solution you opted for, after your climb down from a “Greater Preston” model.”
The South Lancashire grouping of South Ribble, Chorley and West Lancashire has likewise been met with broad approval. Again, this was the preferred outcome for those three authorities.
⬅️ The West Lancashire plan, which rather confusingly does not include the West Lancashire authority, is a little more complicated.
Blackpool had called for the authority to include Preston, and cut Wyre in half. They acknowledged it was the hardest to implement. The Labour council leader Lynn Williams has said she is disappointed, but in an unusual turn of events, the Conservative opposition leader is much more supportive of the Labour government plans.
Less supportive is long-time opponent of local government reorganisation in Conservative MP for Fylde Andrew Snowden.
He said: "I am furious. This is going to throw Lancashire into chaos. We have made our voices clear. We don’t want this. Fylde and Wyre will be used as cash cows to pay for the £500 million of debt that the Labour party has racked up running Blackpool Council.”
Which rather overlooks the £1.2bn of debt his Conservative colleagues built at Lancashire County Council.
Calls for Reform UK cabinet member to step down after ‘most appalling tirade’ at full council
By Luke Beardsworth
A Reform UK cabinet member was forced to apologise after a rant that one party leader described as ‘the most appalling tirade I have ever heard in a council chamber’.
Cllr Matthew Salter, cabinet member for education and skills, appeared to accuse all opposition party members at Lancashire County Council in being complicit in the cover up of the horrendous crimes committed by grooming gangs at a meeting of Full Council on Thursday (18 July).
He would later apologise and withdraw the comments - though that in itself was not without over an hour of debate as to what the wording of the apology should be. Cllr Salter is not expected to resign despite calls from various members of the opposition.
It came during the debate on a motion by Reform UK Cllr Ellie Close which acknowledged systemic failures in responding to child sexual exploitation by grooming gangs and called on the council to be supportive in helping the inquiry come to a full and accurate picture.
But it was a suggested amendment by Cllr Michael Lavalette, from Progressive Lancashire, which sought to add the line that “child sexual abuse takes place at all levels in society, in all communities and all victims need support” which triggered the outburst.
Cllr Salter, reading from his phone in response, felt that this was unreasonably moving the terms of the debate and said that girls were failed ‘because of that attitude’.
He said, with his voice often fluctuating dramatically in pitch, that Cllr Lavalette and Progressive Lancashire, and all of the other opposition councillors, should be ashamed of themselves.
He continued: “The reality is yes, all sexual abuse is wrong, is immoral, is awful, is evil. But it’s people like yourself doing everything you can to cover up the abuse of these young girls to grooming gangs. And we are saying ‘no more!’.”
Cllr Azhar Ali, leader of the Progressive Lancashire, stood to say: “If he thinks he’s in a theatre, he’s not. He’s a cabinet member making accusations which are wrong. If he’s got evidence - put up or shut up.”
Cllr Salter did shut up. But it was not the end of a display at Lancashire County Council that another party leader would later describe to us as ‘unhinged’.
