At the Council's Annual General Meeting today it became clear that the Conservatives in Swansea have done a deal with Labour to take over the control of key council positions in a bid to control the Council.Since January the Conservatives have voted with Labour, and against their former coalition partners on 11 separate occasions. The new informal coalition of Labour, Plaid and Conservatives now control 22 out of the 32 positions that the governing group has held in Swansea for the last 30 years.
Today Labour and Conservatives voted together to deprive the Liberal Democrats and Independents of the Presiding Officer and Deputy Presiding Officer, which are used to chair meetings of Full Council every 6 weeks.
It is shocking how fast the conservatives have left the first non-Labour coalition in 30 years and are now in bed with Labour. The Tories in Swansea seem to have no compunction whatsoever about doing a deal with Labour in an unseemly grab for power. It appears that in every sense a vote for the Conservatives in Swansea is a vote for Labour.
It was also amusing to see the varying degrees of enthusiasm employed by Labour Councillors as they were forced to indicate their support for Conservatives in a named vote. Some such as the Labour leader seemed to have little shame whilst others struggled to speak the name of their Tory ally. We would have thought that all those meetings between David Phillips and Rene Kinzett would have prepared them better for the big moment.
