Coalition on the ground: LGA LibDem leader on local stresses

7 Jul 10
The strain of compromise politics is beginning to affect Liberal Democrats, with the row over school building bringing tensions to the fore. But their LGA leader Richard Kemp tells Lucy Phillips why they are sticking with the coalition

The strain of compromise politics is beginning to affect Liberal Democrats, with the row over school building bringing tensions to the fore. But their LGA leader Richard Kemp tells Lucy Phillips why they are sticking with the coalition

By Lucy Phillips

12 July 2010

Two months into the coalition and the strains of a relationship borne out of necessity rather than political accord are already beginning to show.
In Parliament, there was an open-rebellion, albeit only two-strong, over Chancellor George Osborne’s planned VAT rise. And LibDem deputy leader Simon Hughes has indulged in a little polite criticism of some of the coalition’s more divisive actions, such as the scrapping of Labour’s flagship school rebuilding progamme.

This decision is a particular sore point and has also aggravated tensions at the local level. Warren Bradley, leader of the LibDem opposition on Liverpool City Council, last week voiced some very public and vehement criticism, branding the decision to end Building Schools for the Future ‘unforgivable’.

But Richard Kemp, deputy chair of the Local Government Association and leader of its LibDems is keeping faith with the coalition. He has distanced himself from his colleague’s remarks, maintaining that they are not typical of most LibDem councillors’ feelings.

In an interview with Public Finance, Kemp describes the LibDems as ‘practical anarchists’, making in-party revolts quite natural. But he has a pragmatic way of summing up his colleagues’ feelings. They’re ‘proud’ to have their leader as the deputy prime minister and their friends in Cabinet positions; they’re ‘nervous’ because ‘we’ve not done it before’; and they’re ‘determined’ – to the extent to which ‘we’re bloody well going to make it work because we’ve got to’.

He emphasises that the LGA has long been accustomed to keeping political disagreements between its own four walls, presenting itself as a united front against central government. But the strength of this cover is set to be tested to its limit as new battle lines over localism are drawn. ‘We do [now] have bedfellows that most of us wouldn’t have thought of having,’ adds Kemp.

James Hulme, head of communications at the New Local Government Network, agrees. He says discontent among local LibDems is ‘inevitable’ given the scale of cuts planned to council services. ‘There are lots of opportunities over the next year where there could be polite disagreements between the coalition partners at local level,’ he tells PF

Indeed, Kemp has no qualms about criticising flagship Tory policies for local government. For example, he brands their plans to introduce locally elected police commissioners as ‘barking mad’, claiming the idea is not only opposed by the LibDems, but by three-quarters of the Conservatives themselves. He is similarly opposed to Tory proposals for elected health boards and more elected City mayors – not because these groups shouldn’t be more accountable to local people, but because he believes it will lead to a situation of ‘incoherence and inconsistency’ where ‘politicians and their organisations will fight for territory’.

Kemp adds: ‘We already have a multi-purpose council in every area; that should be the place at which you bring together the democratic process,’

Neither does he beat about the bush when it comes to the Tory concept of Big Society. He claims LibDem councils have been pushing a similar idea for the 35 years that he has been in local government – but it is better described as ‘community politics’, he says. ‘I believe in involvement, in volunteering, in sharing, in empowerment and I’ve been doing it, but Big Society sounds like the big tents, the big circus to me. I don’t like the wording.’

He adds that are simply aren’t ‘zillions of people who are prepared to devote themselves to the community in the way that the Conservatives think there are’. In poor areas ‘people are just scratching to keep their head above water’ while in richer areas if a public service needs a bit of extra money ‘you arrange a whip round for it’. In both types of community any interest generally stops at the end of people’s own road, shopping centre or school, making local enterprises beyond this exceedingly unlikely. He adds: ‘I don’t mind the ambition, as long as we plan practically for what happens when that doesn’t happen.’

Kemp describes the Tory-led freeze on next year’s council tax as ‘tricks and mirrors’. ‘We will be told the government will help us but any extra help they give us to achieve that will be swallowed up in the reductions they are going to make to us. So it will be a problem for councils not for government, despite what government is saying.’ But he adds that most councils are well aware that many people are struggling financially at the moment so would not be inclined to put the tax up anyway. ‘Nutter’ councils prepared to take the government on ‘are few and far between’, he claims.

One of the first major tests in the Tory-LibDem partnership will unquestionably be next year’s local elections. Recent opinion polls have shown a dip in support for the LibDems and Kemp admits the party’s U-turn on next year’s VAT rise won’t play out very well on the doorstep with voters. But his expectations are low anyway, consigned to a parliamentary cycle where ‘opposition parties win and the controlling party – now controlling parties – lose’.

However, he warns against ‘underestimating the resilience of the LibDems’ and thinks they might still experience ‘an element of honeymoon’. He says: ‘I don’t think the swing against us will be as big as against the Tories in time, but there will be a swing against us, I don’t see any way of bucking that trend.’

He reveals that campaigning preparations, including new tactics for defending the party in government, are already under way at the LibDems’ LGA HQ. Canvassers will need to explain two things: first, that ‘when you go into a coalition you don’t get everything you want... so we are going to have to point out the rough with the smooth’; secondly, that things have changed very quickly. ‘None of us knew that Greece was going to go belly up when we prepared our election manifestos at the back end of February,’ he points out. 

Hulme says voters are in ‘slightly uncharted territory’ with only one main opposition party. He agrees that people who traditionally put their protest vote with the LibDems might well decide to back Labour or other parties instead next time. But the fact that the local elections will coincide with the government’s referendum on voting reform might work in the LibDems’ favour. ‘That may bring out more traditional supporters who want to vote in the referendum and will then vote in the local elections,’ says Hulme.

He adds: ‘It’s fair to say that the Conservatives are at the high water mark of their support within local government – and any party of government tends to get a bit of a jolt by the electorate at local elections.’

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