Potts say "Opposition Should Put Up or Shut Up"

1.20.00pm BST (GMT +0100) Mon 26th May 2008

The Liberal Democrat Leader of Milton Keynes Council, Isobel McCall, says that the Conservative and Labour opposition parties in Milton Keynes should put up or shut up when it comes to running the Council.

After the recent local elections

• the Liberal Democrats remained the largest party on Milton Keynes Council

• Isobel McCall was elected as Leader of the Liberal Democrats

• she was duly elected as Leader of the Council at the recent full Council meeting.

Then the two opposition parties, working in coalition, decided they wanted to dictate to the Lib Dems who their leader should be. When Labour and Conservative Councillors didn't get their way, they voted to hand councillors' decision-making powers to unelected officers.

Isobel McCall said: "It is completely unheard of for members of one party to dictate who should lead another party. We are prepared to run an administration - even the Tories say we should! But we do it on our own terms, including deciding on our own leader. The opposition have no right to decide who our leader is. If they won't allow us to run the Council with the Leader and cabinet members we want, the opposition must put up an administration themselves rather than employ wrecking tactics to bring the Council into chaos. They have more than enough votes between them to put up an alternative administration."

Meanwhile, Isobel McCall is carrying on with her duties as Leader of the Council where the current situation makes it appropriate to do so, in order to minimise disruption to partner organisations within Milton Keynes. She has invited the other two cabinet members to play their part. There has been no response whatsoever from the Tory leader who, along with the Labour leader, was elected to the Cabinet.

This whole fiasco started with the opposition parties blaming Isobel McCall for the problems with the school build programme. Not a single report on the school build programme, including the Penn Report, named Isobel as being culpable. The Council staff that were to blame have now gone, and the cabinet member responsible for the school build programme has honourably resigned. The Leader was not held responsible by Mr Penn.

The independent Penn Report was, in fact, commissioned by Isobel McCall and it makes some helpful suggestions on how the Council could work differently, which both Isobel McCall and the interim Chief Executive, Kate Page, are already starting to implement.

"You don't have the Prime Minister step down just because one civil servant makes a mistake," said Isobel. "The official or the Minister resigns - and both have done so in this case."