LABOUR’S takeover of control of the City of Edinburgh Council as a minority administration – thanks to support from Tories and Liberal Democrats – is the worst kind of example of self-interested, power-hungry local politics, spiting the intentions of voters across Edinburgh.
The people of Edinburgh voted collectively for a progressive left alliance of SNP, Labour and the Greens. The previous administration, in 2017-2022, was SNP/Labour. In last month’s local elections, the people of Edinburgh once again gave the SNP the biggest mandate.
The Conservative Party, by contrast, had their worst-ever result, halving their number of elected councillors. They were roundly rejected by the electors, while the LibDems proportionately increased their number of votes.
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Edinburgh Labour is seeking to run the local authority with a group of just 13 out of 63 councillors (two of whom abstained on the associated vote, and half of whom have zero experience).
This is unfair on the electorate and utterly unrepresentative of the electoral outcome.
Many people voted Labour to secure a progressive left alliance to keep the Tories out of power. It is an insult to these voters that Labour representatives have offered Conservative councillors key positions in the administration.
Labour choosing to align with the Tories to keep a progressive centre-left alliance out of power is party politics at its worst and most cynical.
The Labour councillors involved have sold their souls to the Tories for a minority power share that Edinburgh did not vote for. They will now have to rely on right-wing Tories at every single vote.
They have also disfranchised most of their own rank-and-file party members and affiliated trade unionists, who all understandably voted against any deals with the Tories.
Only two recently elected Labour councillors continue to honour traditional socialist Labour values, Ross McKenzie and Katrina Faccenda.
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Both abstained from voting in the administration arrangement vote at the relevant council meeting, choosing to put their own members, unions, Labour values and their ward first, before a power-hungry Labour clique which only cares about its own self-interests at the expense of the people they claim to represent.
As Labour MSP Mercedes Villalba rightly said: “No Labour worth the name would ever put the Tories in power.” Edinburgh Labour members are seeking power without principles, sacrificing a progressive left alliance to align with the Tories and conceding key decision-making positions to the Tories and LibDems.
There is nothing progressive or socialist about putting the Tories into power. Edinburgh Labour will pay the price, both with disenchanted Edinburgh voters and with every single compromised council vote.
Ashley Graczyk served the Sighthill/Gorgie ward in Edinburgh as councillor from 2017-22
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