2:12pm UK, Sunday January 16, 2011
Communities Secretary Eric Pickles has been accused of "fiddling the figures" on local government cuts during a heated debate on Sky News.
The Cabinet Minister appeared on Murnaghan to defend the cuts local authorities must make.
He said no council faced spending reductions of more than 8.9% and called on them to share chief executives and back office operations to slash costs.
But Steve Reed, the leader of Lambeth Council and deputy at the Local Government Association, insisted this was not true.
Lambeth Council's Steve ReedIf I was to sack all the senior managers it would save less than 1% of the £90m worth of cuts that Eric Pickles is making us make.
"Eric, you've fiddled the figures," he said during the fiery roundtable discussion.
Mr Reed accused the Communities Secretary - who disputed the claims - of inflicting cuts of 16.7% to his council this year.
"If I was to sack all the senior managers it would save less than 1% of the £90m worth of cuts that Eric Pickles is making us make [in total]," the told the programme.
"The problem isn't pay, the problem is he's front-loaded the cuts which makes it much more difficult to put in place plans to share back offices."
Eric Pickles accuses Lambeth of paying for anti-government placardsIf the Labour Party wants to do that, let them use their own money, don't let them use the taxpayers' money.
He continued: "If he [Mr Pickles] understood how local government works he would not have allowed the front-loading the way he has done."
Care services and libraries would be forced to close, the Labour councillor added.
But the Conservative minister rejected this assessment and said he had cut £85m from his Whitehall department to spare local authorities cuts that were too severe.
He said Lambeth had reserves worth £83m and appeared to have spent cash putting anti-government placards near London's Waterloo station.
"If the Labour Party wants to do that, let them use their own money, don't let them use the taxpayers' money," Mr Pickles added.
Tony Travers from the London School of Economics, who also took part in debate, said the cuts were being front-loaded, both nationally and locally, to make sure they are less severe by the time the next election approaches.
Labour's Debbie Abrahams won the by-election, the Liberal Democrats came second
He predicted at least 100,000 jobs would go in local authorities across the country.
During the interview, Mr Pickles also acknowledged the Conservatives ran a "gentle" campaign in the Oldham East and Saddleworth by-election.
"We started third and of course we fought a very gentle campaign because that particular campaign was about the nastiness of previous Labour leaflets.
"The Liberals did, I think, pretty good. They increased their poll position."
The Tories were accused of failing to fight hard enough for the seat because they wanted to coalition partners the Lib Dems to win - something David Cameron denied.
Sally Bercow spoke about her husband, the Speaker
:: Also on Murnaghan, Labour activist Sally Bercow said there was a whispering campaign against her husband - Commons Speaker John Bercow.
"The bottom line is a lot of Tories, I'm afraid, still can't accept that my husband won the speakership fair and square and is doing a very good job and he did it without Tory support," she said.
"There'll always be a whispering campaign... basically he is on the side of the backbenchers," she added.
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