Demanding An End to All Council Cuts in Leicester

On Wednesday February 20, Leicester’s Labour City Council once again voted through a series of further massive cuts to local spending.

In opposition to this appalling behaviour, the Leicester Socialist Party helped organise a lobby of the budget-setting meeting, where we called upon our Labour Council to launch a fight back against all cuts.

For nine years now, the people of Leicester have faced continued austerity — with barely a peep from the majority of Labour councillors.

Local government is under immediate threat. The government aims to reduce councils to being no more than administrators of contracts for private profiteers.

But as of October last year, Labour councils around the country were sitting on £9.3 billion in general fund reserves. In Leicester, they have tens of millions in the bank.

Councillors have always had a choice. As we have always argued, they could use their reserves and borrowing powers to fund no-cuts, needs-based budgets. This would make ‘for the many not the few’ more than just a slogan.

Jeremy Corbyn should call on all Labour councils to take this road. And he should pledge to restore the funding of any council which does – as soon as a Labour government is elected.

If Labour councils stood in solidarity with trade unions and communities to fight to defend our services, a mass campaign could stop these cuts. What’s more, it could play a major part in building a movement that could force the Tories out and bring about a general election.

However, Leicester’s Labour councillors have not chosen this path. This is why the Socialist Party will be standing against them in the Mayoral elections and against rightwing councillors who are unwilling to fight against cuts.