Reform trying to 'stifle free speech' at council

Reform UK councillors are being accused of trying to "stifle free speech" at a county council.

It comes after members of a Lancashire County Council committee voted to stop the leader of the opposition, Azhar Ali OBE (independent), from asking questions about an ongoing consultation into the future of five care homes and five day centres run by the authority.

Ali said: "Reform always talk about free speech but clearly at Lancashire County Council there is no free speech."

Lancashire County Council rules say while "a councillor may attend as an observer at a meeting of any committee of which they are not a member, they may not speak without the consent of the committee, or in any case vote."

But Ali says it has always been the understanding that if a county councillor asks to speak that they be allowed.

He said: I must admit, I was shocked, and I'm really angry that democracy is being suppressed."

He added: "I wanted to raise questions about the minutes of the last meeting, which are inaccurate, there's lots of things that were discussed which haven't been provided to residents or their families and it's important that the whole process is transparent."

Speaking at the meeting about why he voted against Ali to speak, Reform UK's Shaun Crimmins said: "The care home issue is very emotive and we just don't want to make it more emotive, we're just going over the same old same old, we've got to wait to find out what all these reports are going to say before we comment further, surely."

The deputy chair of the Health and Adult Services Scrutiny Committee, Green Party councillor Hamish Mills, said he "didn't necessarily agree" with the decision, but that "if the majority of the committee doesn't want that councillor to speak, then unfortunately that's the case."

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