No confidence vote on Cornwall Council leader Linda Taylor

The sheer scale of political opinion was aired with one of Cllr Taylor’s own party likening her (favourably) to the “new Margaret Thatcher” while others accused her of “abject failure” as a leader. The councillors who pushed for the vote were described as a “Judas” and “his stooge” by a member of the Cabinet.

The motion was brought by Tory rebel Cllr John Conway, who resigned from the council’s Conservatives earlier this year to lead a new political group of fellow disaffected Tories, including Steve Arthur and Adrian Harvey (who were labelled as “Larry, Mo and Curly” – The Three Stooges – by Cllr Paul Wills later in the meeting).

The controversial decision by Cllr Taylor’s Cabinet to seek a financial partnership with a private equity firm to run and develop the Newquay airport estate was cited as the reason for the attempted vote to topple her. A number of opposition councillors believe there hasn’t been enough cross-party debate on the issue and have accused Cllr Taylor and her group of a lack of transparency.

Ultimately, the bid was unsuccessful with 43 voting against ousting her, 32 in favour and five abstentions.

Independent councillor Julian German, a former leader of the council himself, seconded the motion. He said: “I don’t doubt that Cllr Taylor will win the vote today, that Conservative and Independent Conservative Aligned colleagues – I wonder how many of them are happy about their new group? – will vote for Cllr Taylor today. They will do so because they will be kicked out of the Conservative party if they do any different.

“What it does not mean is that they all have confidence in Cllr Taylor, that they support the airport deal, or that they support the privatisation of our car parks.”

Cllr Kate Ewert added that the Labour group had no confidence in Cllr Taylor, citing infighting among the Conservative group, council tax increasing annually by the maximum allowed during the administration’s tenure and costly capital projects such as the Pydar and Langarth developments in the Truro area.

Cornwall Council leader Linda Taylor sat on her own during the debate about her leadership (Pic: LeeTrewhela/LDRS)

Other councillors mentioned the expensive failure of the Saints Trail project and the Stadium for Cornwall – which was dubbed by Labour councillor Stephen Barnes as now being the “Stadium for Truro FC” – as other reasons to question Cllr Taylor’s leadership.

Independent councillor Tim Dwelly, who has been very vocal in opposing the airport deal, started by praising the leader over her stance against racism and anti-semitism, but went on to say that a vote for Cllr Taylor was supporting decisions that are “going down badly with the Cornish public”.

Cabinet member for the environment Cllr Martyn Alvey highlighted the “absurdity” of removing a council leader at such a crucial time with just months to go before the election “on the whim of a Judas who can’t tell the difference between strong leadership and simply not getting his way, and his stooge”. He went on to say that there was no other suitable candidate to lead the council currently and Cllr Taylor “is the best we have”.

The political to-ing and fro-ing went on, with Cllr John Fitter mentioning the “shambles and disasters” of the Tory administration, while others pointed out Cllr Taylor’s standing and recognition as a passionate voice on the national and international stage. Cllr Barry Jordan went so far as to call her a “new Margaret Thatcher leading us through very difficult times”.

Non-aligned councillor Dulcie Tudor paid tribute to Cllr Taylor for being the first female leader of Cornwall Council “which is a significant achievement”. She went on to say that some members, like her, feel that the airport saga is the latest in a series of projects about which they feel they are being kept in the dark.

She added that many of the issues and projects raised during the meeting were inherited by the current Cabinet from the last administration, and those who were criticising Cllr Taylor “did a worse job themselves”. Her comment received a round of applause.

Cornwall Council leader Linda Taylor (Pic: Lee Trewhela / LDRS)

“If Cllr Taylor is forced to step down then I implore whoever is voted in to use this next six months wrestling some control back from officers who are going unchecked and playing fast and loose with taxpayers’ money. Bring transparency back into the council because it’s the system that needs to be overhauled,” said Cllr Tudor.

Cllr Louis Gardner, the Cabinet’s head of transport who oversees the airport deal, stressed there have been six scrutiny meetings about the proposed deal, with those who had brought the vote of no confidence only attending two of them.

“I believe this is not about the airport, this is misogynistic,” he added, to boos from opposition councillors, a couple of whom asked for his comments to be retracted. “I believe this is because Linda Taylor is a woman. The misogyny is rife,” he continued.

Following the vote in which Cllr Taylor was saved, she told us: “I’m delighted to have won the vote of no confidence and I want to pay tribute to my Cabinet and to all the members of my administration. It was a misguided motion – there are better ways to have dealt with it. We can now get back and start working for the people of Cornwall.”