REDBRIDGE: Tempers flare during council meeting

3:05pm Friday 16th May 2008

THE leader of Redbridge Council was branded a bully and a covert member of the British National Party (BNP) during furious exchanges in the council chamber.

The attacks came in a debate at a full council meeting at Ilford Town Hall as Alan Weinberg tried to force through changes to his cabinet.

After being accused by Labour leader Cllr Elaine Norman of assigning positions on the basis of petty squabbles, Lib Dem councillor Ian Bond said he was a bully with contempt for both residents and the cabinet, before Tory rebel Cllr Harold Moth accused the council leader of siding with the BNP.

The former Conservative councillor, who now sits as an independent, said: "I will refer you to two occasions at an area three committee when there was conspiring between a member of this council and another party and he refused to take action.

"This is the behaviour of a leader who has lost control, and by doing this, he has revealed himself to be a covert member of the BNP."

Cllr Weinberg reacted furiously and demanded Cllr Moth be ejected from the chamber, saying: "To accuse a Jew of being a member of a Nazi party is a disgrace."

The council's one member of the BNP, Hainault councillor Julian Leppert then stood up and demanded Cllr Weinberg withdraw his claim that the BNP was a Nazi party.

Cllr Moth reluctantly left after requests from the mayor, a vote from members, and outcries from the public, but later had to be ejected again after sneaking back into the public gallery.

Earlier in the evening Cllr Bond had urged members to think very carefully about their decision before supporting the new cabinet line-up.

He said: "People have walked out of this chamber in tears, uttering profanities that are almost as bad as the ones I have heard uttered about the leader by his members.

He added: "He has turned this council into a party political rabble."

Speaking to the Guardian the morning after the turbulent meeting, Cllr Weinberg said: "The fact that Labour and the Liberal Democrats don't want me in is a badge of honour and just means I'm doing the job right.

"Cllr Moth's comments, on the other hand, were highly offensive to me as an individual, me as a Conservative and me as a Jew."

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