Ken Versus Assembly: Assembly Strikes Back!

By Rob Last edited 221 months ago
Ken Versus Assembly: Assembly Strikes Back!
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Following Ken's slightly inflammatory comments (does he make any other kind?) yesterday, the London Assembly have closed ranks and struck back by asking for stronger powers to hold Ken to account.

At a meeting today, held to discuss Ken's plans to scrap the elected assembly and replace it with a committee of borough leaders, Bob Neill, leader of the assembly's Conservative group, said:

We should not be speaking about grabbing powers from the boroughs... If you are going to have an increase in powers for the mayor the principle must be that for the sake of transparency that must be coupled with an increase in powers for the assembly to hold the mayor to account.

Labour's assembly member, as you might expect, sat on the fence a bit:

We should not be surprised to hear [this] from a mayor who thinks the assembly has not performed in a way that has totally excelled to the best of its ability...The question is whether the power we have and the hand we have been dealt makes it difficult to deliver.

While the LibDems just got all paranoid:

The mayor is setting a trap for us. He is trying to position himself as someone pushing for effective government and trying to put us in a defensive position about our own powers.

Tomorrow: Ken makes everyone wear uniforms and salute him in the corridors.

Last Updated 12 October 2005