Councillor takes aim at his former Labour allies

FURIOUS ATTACK ACCUSES PARTY OF NOT BEING IN CONTROL OF COUNCIL

- JANE HAYNES Politics & People Editor

FORMER Birmingham Labour councillor Martin Brooks has launched an angry tirade against his ex-party colleagues, describing their leaders as ‘unelected’ and controlled by the party's ‘apparatchiks’

In a scathing attack, he told a full council meeting that backbench members were afraid to speak out for fear of deselection, and that the council's leader, deputy leader and cabinet were all imposed by party chiefs.

To murmurs of dissent on the Labour side, and cheers and laughter from the opposition benches, Cllr Brooks took aim at his former group.

He was speaking at an extraordinary meeting of the full council to discuss a public interest report into the council’s failed Oracle IT project that is costing up to £100 million to put right.

A lifetime Labour member until quitting the group earlier this year following a suspension, Cllr Brooks, who represents Harborne, is now an Independent.