Warren Bradley dismisses education chief’s resignation as “sour grapes”

Mar 28 2008 by Andy Kelly, Liverpool Daily Post

THE resignation of a senior Liverpool councillor from its executive board has been described as “sour grapes” by council leader Warren Bradley.

The shock decision by Cllr Paul Clein to quit as executive member for children’s services after 10 years in the post was last night described by supporters as a “loss to the city”. But opposition to the ruling Liberal Democrats said it showed a party in the midst of “civil war” that is “implod- ing on a daily basis”, after Cllr Clein was openly critical of Lib-Dem colleagues Warren Bradley and Mike Storey.

Cllr Clein resigned yesterday in the wake of a row over the deselection of his colleague Kevin Firth last week, and what he calls the “questionable behaviour” of his party’s leadership.

Last night, Cllr Bradley announced Cllr Erica Kemp, a teacher and chair of the education select committee, as his replacement, effective as of this morning’s executive board meeting. Cllr Clein said he had been “unhappy with the leadership of the council for a while”.

He is not resigning as a Lib-Dem councillor for Greenbank Ward, where he has served for 16 years.

Cllr Clein said: “The deselection of my friend and colleague Kevin Firth was basically the last straw.

“It seems to me there is a strong perception by all and sundry that Kevin was de-selected because of his attempts to hold the leader-ship to account over the Mathew Street and Lee Forde business in December.

“There are a number of my colleagues in the executive board involved in that which means it makes it difficult for me to criticise it. I felt no-one else was going to stand up and say ‘that is wrong’, so I am.

“I’m talking about the polit-ical leadership of the Lib-Dems – not just Warren Bradley but also Mike Storey.

“We have worked together for a long time and it is not a personal dislike, I have always got on well with them. I felt some of their behaviour has been questionable. Certainly it is Kevin’s perception they are involved in his deselection.

“I considered resignation in November after the story emerged about the secret meeting between Warren, Mike and Lee Forde.

“I hoped things would settle down but their behaviour has not changed in my view.”

Council leader Cllr Warren Bradley said he thanked Cllr Clein for his “tireless work on the children’s services portfolio”, but that he believed the resignation was “sour grapes” for losing in the party leadership contest two years ago.

Cllr Bradley said: “The culmination of this is that he feels particularly hurt that his friend was deselected – but I had no impact on that.”

It is not the first time Cllr Clein has resigned from the executive board.

He quit in April, 2002, in a row over funding cuts but was reinstated a month later after private discussions with Cllr Storey, who was then leader of the city council.

Cllr Storey said: “I abso-lutely refute the accusation against me by Paul Clein as I was out of the country at the time [of the vote].

“It is just sad that somebody who has real ability and talent takes his bat and ball away because a friend doesn’t happen to win a nomination.”

Although members of the Lib-Dems admit the coming election will be a difficult one, claiming it would be for any party that has been in power for 10 years, they deny any other problems.

But critics of the council said the current scenario – including resigning board members and investigations by the Standards Board – was tantamount to “civil war”. Cllr Joe Anderson, leader of the Labour Group, said: “It just shows the Lib-Dems are imploding on a daily basis, and the city is suffering in terms of reputation.

“My belief is that they are bankrupt of ideas, bankrupt of vision, and bankrupt morally.

“The accusations and thuggery flying round is something that needs to be quickly sorted out, for the good of the city.”

Cllr Steve Radford, leader of the Liberal Party group, said: “Hardly a week goes by without the Lib-Dems inflicting another own goal.

“There are remarkable parallels to the dying days of the last Tory leadership when they were pulling each other apart. It’s not for me to comment on another party’s difficulties, but by focusing on each other’s disputes, however valid, means the focus is taken off running the city and that is deeply worrying.”

Liam Fogarty, chair of amayorforliverpool.org, said: “There’s now civil war inside the ruling Lib-Dems. But the real casualties are Liverpool’s reputation and the interests of its people.

“The city council’s culture of in-fighting and petty point-scoring is holding Liverpool back.”

Reflecting on his work on the board, Cllr Clein said: “In many ways, I’ve achieved what I set out to do, so maybe in context it is a good time to go.”

vickyanderson