08.02.18
Opposition demands Javid resignation over finance settlement errors
The shadow communities secretary has called on his government counterpart to resign, following allegations that he “knowingly misled” parliament when publishing the provisional local government finance settlement.
Labour’s Andrew Gwynne said he had received correspondence from Sajid Javid which confirmed that officials within the Conservative Party had understood the “overall scale of the error” in their settlement calculations but released the figures anyway.
Gwynne claims that, because the housing and communities secretary knew that the figures were based on inaccurate information but did not inform the House of Commons of that fact, he was knowingly misleading ministers – an offence which the ministerial code says should result in resignation.
Many councils used the provisional settlement to set early projections for their own budgets, and the shadow secretary said Javid’s decision to use incorrect figures created a “damaging lack of trust” in the government.
“At no stage in the proceedings did the secretary of state advise the House that those data were incorrect, and many local authorities based their 2018 budget settings on the figures that he gave in his statement of 19 December, believing them to be correct,” Gwynne said.
“That is now creating a damaging lack of trust in the ministry across local government. More seriously, however, the secretary of state has not publicly apologised to the House, but both “Erskine May” and the ministerial code go further, stating that ministers who knowingly mislead Parliament—that is now the case—must offer their resignation to the prime minister.”
The full local government finance settlement was released earlier this week, revealing the scale of funding councils will receive over the next year.
Crucially it included an extra £150m earmarked for social care as a response to fears of a growing funding gap in the sector.
In addition, Javid revealed that the government would be allocating further funds to rural councils, a move which has been applauded by counties, which feared service cuts were imminent.
PSE has contacted the ministry for housing, communities and local government for a response to Gwynne’s criticism.
Top image: Gareth Fuller PA Wire
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