News from Westminster Labour

Westminster Conservatives go ahead with £23,000 dinner despite cuts

A £20 million hole in the Council budget, £17 million at risk in now-failed Icelandic banks, and 300 staff made redundant – but it is ‘business as usual’ for Westminster Conservatives as invitations go out to the ‘great and the good’ for the Annual Civic Dinner at the The Northumberland, in Northumberland Avenue, which is costing Westminster Council Tax payers £23,000.

Among those sitting down with 49 Conservative Councillors to an all-expenses paid black-tie dinner in the five-star Northumberland, will be a range of Lords, Dukes, Kinghts of the Realm, Mayors and Ambassadors.

The Conservatives will be entertaining their guests at at The Northumberland’s “restored, huge and magnificent ballroom, which has one of the grandest Victorian interiors remaining in London, with its stunningly high ceilings and natural daylight.”

According to The Northumberland’s publicity, “The Ballroom has not been available to use for over 70 years creating a incredible new venue that could give your event exclusivity that no other venue in London can.”

Councillor Paul Dimoldenberg, Leader of the Labour Group said:

“Westminster Conservatives are living in a different world from the rest of us. Don’t they know that spending Council Tax payers money like confetti on entertaining the ‘great and the good’ at a time when ordinary people are losing their jobs and homes will further diminish trust in politicians? Have they no sense of the public mood and the anger that many people feel about how some politicians have been taking public money for granted?”

“Labour Councillors will be again boycotting this exclusive event. We are also calling on all Conservative Councillors to put their hands in their pockets and pay the full cost of this dinner themselves. Pay up or don’t go, is our message to the Conservatives.”

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