The Labour Leader of Milton Keynes Council, Cllr Peter Marland, has said that criticism from the local Conservative party that he has failed to stand up to the Corbyn-backing grassroots campaigning organisation Momentum is 'desperate stuff'.
The accusation comes as a large number of Labour council leaders in England and Wales signed a joint letter fiercely attacking the 'Momentum takeover' of the Labour Party's National Executive Committee.
However, the local Conservative party have said that Cllr Marland's name was 'missing' from the letter.
In the letter to the Sunday Times last weekend, the Labour Council leaders write the actions of Labour’s ruling national executive committee (NEC) are “dangerous and alarming”, “uncomradely and disrespectful” and “an affront to the basic principles of democracy”.
A local Conservative Spokesperson said: “This is really concerning and I hope both Labour and opposition councillors will be asking Cllr Marland why he hasn’t stood up to the hard left group. Milton Keynes is a forward thinking, ambitious city that doesn't need Momentum to tell us what we can and can't do. Cllr Marland needs to show leadership and defend his Council.”
In response to the allegations, Cllr Marland said: "Wow. This is really desperate stuff from the useless local Tories."
"As Leader of MK Council I’ve spent four years fighting £140m Tory cuts to our council, saving libraries, keeping weekly bin collections and keeping open children’s centres."
"While the local Tories seem to want to re-run the smears that saw them perform so disastrously at the last General Election, I’m dealing with a housing crisis on our doorstep that their policies are creating."
"I’m very happy to be judged on my record on delivering MK Futures 2050, building council houses and a £40m investment to make MK the first gigabit fibre optic internet ready city."
"Maybe if the local Tories spent more time concentrating on local issues rather than worrying about the Labour NEC and smearing Labour Party members, or tearing themselves or Theresa May apart, they’d get more respect.
