09/02/2012 Newsnight Scotland

Harry Redknapp's late lamented Rosie all bark but no bite? We'll

Tonight on Newsnight Scotland - resignations, revolts and

recriminations. After a day of drama at Glasgow City Chambers,

Labour did manage to get their budget passed - but only by the

skin of their teeth. Are we witnessing a crisis?

Good evening. Until today, passing a budget at Glasgow City Council

would be considered little more than a formality. But when three

Labour members quit the party in the hours leading up to today's

vote and three others voted against, the result was far closer than many

had expected. The budget may have been passed by two votes, but the

fallout will no doubt continue right through to May's council

elections. Already there are accusations of bullying and

intimidation. Here's Raymond Buchanan.

It's Scotland's largest local authority. It spends more than �2

billion of public money a year, and for decades, it's been a Labour

stronghold. Today, this political fortress looked much less solid -

three disaffected and deselected Labour councillors resigned,

threatening the budget. They talked of being victims of a party run by

control freaks, getting rid of members just before May's local

elections. Well, the fact is the Labour Party has lost its way. When

it gets rid of the heart of its membership - iting I Norse the

branches and the selections and doesn't give them the pick of the

candidates and leaves that up to officials from London and

individuals from Glasgow, then that's not right. You were a Labour

councillor. Are you still a Labour councillor? No, my resignation

letter went in late last night. I am no longer a Labour councillor.

Why are you no longer a member of the Labour Party? I don't believe

what the Labour Party is doing in Glasgow is in the best interests of

Glasgow, and for a lot of us who were deselected from the mass cull,

from the Labour HQ, I can no longer agree to go with Labour Party

politics. Who do you blame for what's happened to the Labour Party

in the city chambers? I blame London Labour because, let's be

honest, this is London Labour running Glasgow Labour - Glen

Matheson, the regional director up here, a guy called Ken Clarke, and

there is - for whatever reason, there is a witchhunt to get the

lists - what is it - 20 deselected councillors and said no way back.

As previously mentioned, how can I continue to give my loyalties to

the party when the Labour Party have effectively dumped all of us

and classed us as dead? TV cameras were allowed into the chamber

briefly, but not for a debate. Whilst there, we captured some of

the new seating arrangements. Inside the chamber, we had

deselected Labour councillors who had lost the party Whip moving from

the ruling side to that of the opposition. There, they found

people to welcome them. In fact, all of Labour's opponents ganged

together and drew up this - a surprise alternative budget, handy

it just happened to be ready. They'd been working on a secret

deal for the past week. The city treasurer was fairly relaxed.

you going to get your vote through today? Looking forward to the

meeting reconvening. His boss wasn't. Gordon Matheson listened to

his opponents, then rose to fight for his political life. He defended

Labour's political record in the city and described the alternative

budget as a shoddy deal when it came to the vote, his speech had

Councillor Matheson, you won that vote. Your reaction? I am

absolutely delighted. There was a shoddy little attempt at a

compromise involving the SNPs and the Tories and so on. It delivered

a significantly worse budget. What we stood on in there and were

emfattitic about is Glasgow Labour transforming this city and our

vision and our passion and the team we have leading the city forward

from here - I am thrilled and delighted to have won the day

because it's best for Glasgow. Let's be honest, though, this has

been a day of crisis for the Labour Party. You talked about the pain

inside the Labour group. Many blame you for that. How are you going to

heal that? Labour doesn't take electoral success for granted at

any point. We stand on our record and our vision, but every political

party needs to renew itself while in office. No job, let alone a

Labour councillor, is for life. It's difficult, but we had over a

hundred applicants. You have to choose the best because the people

deserve no better than that option. Your opponents say this has been a

shambles. Some have called for you to resign. Will you? I have won a

budget debate against every other party who cobbled together at the

last minute some shoddy little deal with that record, with that vision,

with that significant victory, the mood of Glasgow Labour is buoyant

moving into this election with the passion and the vision of their

team to lead the city forward. ex-councillor claimed she wouldn't

be bullied or intimidated despite appeals for her to remain loyal to

the party. Others accepted defeat for now. Do you think they'll learn

a lesson today? No. Knowing the Labour Party as I have for a couple

of years here and being a member of Glasgow, Labour don't learn the

lessons and will probably blame somebody else if they lose the

council come May. It will be everybody else's fault. Will they

lose? Personally, I think so. is a disastrous result for Gordon

Matheson. A few weeks ago he was a leader with a huge majority. He's

now in a situation where he's a leader of a minority administration.

Only 38 out of 70 councillors voted for his budget today. He doesn't

even have the confidence of all of his members in the Labour group

never mind the council and the people. If I was in his position, I

would be considering his position and be resigning for the good of

the people of Glasgow. So what does this mean for the future? Labour

are confident of retaining Glasgow despite their obvious troubles, but

the SNP are determined to end the party's rule here. Who wins in May

will tell us just how much politics is changing in Scotland's biggest

city. I'm joined now by Councillor Tommy

Morrison, one of the three Labour members who resigned. Stephen

Curran is a Labour Councillor in Glasgow South. And Derek Mackay is

the local Government Minister. Can we just get some facts clear before

we start the discussion, Stephen Curran? How many Labour councillors

fewer are there tonight than there were this morning? Well, that's

entirely up to the members who have made the decisions, unfortunately,

to leave the party. The important thing today... Hang on. Just let's

stick to the fact. Three left - three have resigned, right? I can't

speak for the people who have resigned. I am not asking you to

speak for them. I am just asking you as a member of the Labour group

what's happened to your members? Three have gone. What happens to

the three who voted against your budget, but who didn't resign?

They're automatically suspended, aren't they? Not at all. We need to

look and see. We won a budget vote today... Hang on. You can have this

discussion in a minute, but surely under Labour Party rules if you

vote against your own party on a budget, which is a crucial vote,

you are suspended from the Labour group, aren't you? You can look at

that later. I have no idea... you don't know what your own

party's rules are? No, I have no idea who voted for the budgets.

am not asking you who voted for it. I am asking a simple procedural

point. Is it not the case if you vote against your own party in a

crucial vote like the budget when you're a member of a council, then

the party rules will automatically suspend those members? Is that the

case or not? We certainly need to look at that. There has been cases

in the past where people have voted in error. So they might have made a

mistake? LAUGHTER

All right. Tommy Morrison, why did you leave?

Well, first of all, I didn't make a mistake. I voted for the

opposition's joint budget. I didn't move from my seat, which was my

Labour seat, until such time as that budget was put forward. When

that budget was put forward, that was a good budget for the whole of

Glasgow. That was raised by every opposition member with the

exception of Councillor Deans, the Independent, and the moment that

was presented, because of the work that others and myself have done,

in one week to bring those opposition teams together for the

good of Glasgow - within one week of putting this together, and at

that point, I moved my... OK. at that point, I understood that I

would be suspended. Right. But what's your problem with the Labour

Party? I mean, how long have you been a member of the Labour Party?

Over 15 years when I first was working with the Labour Party in

1968. And how long have you been a councillor? Four years - coming up

for - Right so what was - made this so important to you that you have

effectively walked out on your own party? Well, what makes this more

important is the way the Labour Party in Glasgow is being run. The

way that the Labour Party in Glasgow is being run is it's being

run by bullying, by intimidation, by harassment. You might want to

ask Stephen this question, but I believe that 30 of the 40 members

that voted today would not vote for the leader or for senior members of

the administration. I believe that that's been used... Would you - you

say - I mean, these are very emotive phrases. I don't want to go

into bullying because there are all sorts of legal implications of that

but one of the specific points that was made by people there is they

felt that what they called "London Labour" was somehow affecting

things like selection processes over the heads of the local party.

Is that your view? In the selection process - and it was only Glasgow

that did this. Glasgow Labour decided they were going to

interview every Labour candidate, including the sitting candidates.

That had never been done before. There was no provision for it if

you didn't have an adverse - report. It was made up on the spot, and it

was rolled out. Ken Clarke was sent up from London to carry out the

dirty work. Right. But the point is, you were deselect. Yes, I was.

don't have to be a cynic to say you have an obvious interest in the

Labour Party because you're putting your own interests in the Labour

Party? No. I had an interest in keeping the Labour Party above

water. What they're doing is bringing on so much water they

can't keep their boat afloat. And my colleagues and myself are more

than willing to work for the good Derek Mackay, I am interested in

the fact. What is your understanding of how many members

are effectively exiting the Labour group? A I am not sure, but I am

sure that anyone who votes against the budget is automatically

suspended. It is taken as read that you vote for your own that end he

and Gerona party? We are due leader saying that he was poignant today.

My God, when you come out of a meeting with six fewer councillors

than when you win 10, that is a disaster. Uni to understand the

process here. Tommy is disgruntled. It is local members who did the

interviews in Glasgow for the candidates. Are you seriously

telling me that the Labour Party go into a budget meeting and coming

out with six fewer councillors than the win in is anything other than

an unmitigated disaster? Take results happen all over Scotland

and councils. It is unusual in Glasgow. How many other councils in

Scotland has Labour gone into meetings and, with fewer

councillors? Las Cortes the biggest council in Scotland. The mask the

vast majority who are not standing voted for the budget. A small

number decided for personal reasons not to support us. Every leave

aside the details of this, you know that you are in danger of losing

Glasgow to the Scottish National Party, then why did Jude deselect

20 councillors who you then you would be disgruntled when you they

were up against this lot anyway? set the bar has a across Scotland

and local government. We're representing people all over the

country. I am sorry that people did not get through the selection

process, like Tommy. But we have got a really good team. It is the

bad thing for the Labour Party as a whole. It is not just be members,

but people involved in the party at all levels who were leaving.

are involved with the SNP group. Tommy said that opposition Members

came together. It appeared that the Scottish National Party came

forward with the budget out of nowhere for today's meeting?

Parties work together all the time in opposition. The will, it was not

just the Scottish National Party, that was produced by all the

opposition parties. I had no part in the budget discussions. He said

that you had been working over the past week with members. With

members. But you're a member of the Labour Party? The we do forward an

idea that if we could get everyone together we could put forward

together a better budget proposals. When you see you, do you mean you

and the other five members? first person we spoke to is a

conservative and we then spoke to the Liberal Democrats to see if

they had the feasible idea. They thought it could be a feasible idea.

We then spoke to the Scottish National Party to consider whether

they were interested. The last people we spoke to was only this

morning and that was the Green Party. UK surely understand why

even if Stephen does not know the Wait a minute. Tommy and his new

colleagues cannot with the budget which took �1 million out of

education compared to us. What's so find extraordinary is that we are

now starting to learn that you see Tommy and another five men burst in

the Labour group had been going around having meetings with the

other parties for a week to plot the budget - the most crucial thing

in any council - against your own party. But the Labour Party

appeared to know nothing about it? Nor, that is not true. The majority

of the people who were deselected did vote for the budget and for

jobs and education. The majority stuck with the party. The there are

now seven councillors aren't there? I'll losing count. There are the

three who resigned, the three who are automatically suspended, the

three who what voted against the budget and Irfan Rabbani, who

defected to the Scottish National party from Labour. The air may even

be further resignations to fall. The people of Glasgow will very

shortly get the chance. I want to talk about what happened today, not

about you or ambitions for the future. Let us ask Tommy, will you

join the Scottish National Party? Let me tell you what the figures

are. Today, there was 38. Colin Deans, the Independent, voted with

the Labour Party. And someone else, who is suspended from the Labour

Party, actually voted with them. Will you stand Labour candidates

against all the people who voted against you? A thank you all very

much indeed. He is a look at tomorrow's paper. Donald Trump

Brown's Salmond in seen over wind farms, says the Scotsman. The

Financial Times says the grease degrees more cut since a bid to

Secure refresh bail-out. And in the Daily Telegraph, the elderly are

told to go back to work. We are Hello. Another cold night in

prospect for most of us. This snow clears the way quite sharply on

bright on Friday. Some areas will actually have plenty of sunshine,

such as Yorkshire and Lincolnshire. It will be a bright the end

Brighton and the South East. A lot of the rain will cling on to

Cornwall and the south-west corner of Wales. A lot of places will

endure a snow we start in Wales. In Northern Ireland, a dry and mild

start, 89 degrees celsius tomorrow. The West of Scotland will have

sporadic showers throughout the day. Crucially, it this state Mail