Labour rebel gets Royle backing!

A LABOUR rebel councillor received “Royle” backing for his stand against Warrington council cut backs from actor Ricky Tomlinson at the TUC conference in Manchester.
Cllr Kevin Bennett a member of Unite, sits on its regional committee and is a Labour councillor on the borough council. He spoke at the regional conference on Saturday about why he voted against the cuts at the Warrington Borough Council Budget Meeting.
He told delegates: “On Monday March 4 at the Full Council meeting in Warrington we were voting on the budget, I decided to vote against the cuts. And look I’m still alive to tell the tale.”
At the meeting the council approved a £439 million budget for the coming year – and a 1.98 per cent increase in council tax.
But Cllr Bennett opposed the £14 million of savings required – and said he expected to be disciplined or expelled from the controlling Labour group.
At the conference he also launched an attack on Prime Minister David Cameron saying: “Now we find out that Cameron has been lying to the country, telling us that the OBR (Office of Budget Responsibility) agreed with him that his austerity plans were not responsible for the lack of growth in the economy. But the opposite is true; the OBR has been telling him since 2010 that spending cuts reduce growth.”
“Enough is enough, Labour councils are acting ‘as agents of the coalition’ they need to stop burying their heads in the sand and start listening to the alternatives.”
An emergency motion was put to the conference in support of Cllr Bennett’s stand against the cuts and received a majority vote in favour of it.
Later he was introduced to Ricky Tomlinson, who stars at Jim Royle in BBC’s The Royle Family, by TUC Boss Alec McFadden. After an informal chat the actor wished Cllr Bennett “all the best.”
Ricky, who plays Jim Royle in the popular television series ‘The Royle Family’, was at the North West TUC Conference to ask for support on his long running campaign to bring justice for the families of the ‘Shrewsbury 24’, 40 years after it happened and says the government still won’t release confidential documents.
www.shrewsbury24campaign.org.uk/tag/ricky-tomlinson/