Labour councillors in Birmingham have been piling up the freebies – as rubbish piles high across the city due to a month-long bin strike.
With rats ‘as big as cats’ plaguing neighbourhoods and three million wheelie bins’ worth of waste rotting on the streets, council leaders enjoyed trips to the ballet, a Champions League football match and fine dining.
Last night, Elliot Keck of the TaxPayers’ Alliance said locals will be ‘utterly appalled’.
Walkouts that began in January escalated into an indefinite strike three weeks ago in a row over job cuts. It has now emerged that deputy leader Sharon Thompson was given a £300 ticket by Brindley Capital, an investment firm, to watch Aston Villa beat Celtic in the Champions League the evening before a strike.
Amid mounting fury at the Labour-run council over the chaos, with rubbish piling up and rats running riot on the city’s streets, No10 urged Unite to ‘get round the table’ and negotiate ‘in good faith’
The strike has led to rubbish piling up in the streets and residents complaining about rats
The council declared a major incident earlier this week in a bid to increase collections of bin sacks amid a huge pile-up of waste on the streets
The walkout has left Birmingham’s streets covered in waste, attracting vermin, particularly rats
Two weeks later, she and a guest were at Symphony Hall for a ballet. And four after that, she and a guest watched a ballet of Cinderella at the Birmingham Hippodrome.
Earlier that month, cabinet member Saima Suleman got a free meal at Asha’s Indian Restaurant from the Night Time Industries Association.
A spokesman insisted the councillors’ gifts were related to their work in the authority.
The council, under Labour control since 2012, declared effective bankruptcy in 2023.
