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| Labour Councillor Lee Whitbread Photo: Southampton City Council |
Three Southampton City Councillors failed to attend the February 2026 Budget Full Council - two Labour and one Conservative. One of them is already suspended by Labour, pending investigation.
The Budget Full Council meeting is where the Council's budget is considered and voted on by all fifty-one councillors. There are three councillors per council ward and there are seventeen wards.
The Councillors who gave apologies were:
- Councillor Lee Whitbread (suspended as Labour pending investigation, Redbridge)
- Councillor Val Laurent (Conservative, Harefield)
- Councillor Vivienne Windle (Labour, Banister and Polygon).
Lee Whitbread is under investigation by Labour, and is described as an Independent. As we have said before, that is inaccurate. He is a fake independent and nothing to do with Southampton Independents.
As they were not at the meeting, they could not speak, or vote for, against and abstain, at the Council Budget.
Their constituents will be left wondering whether they supported the Labour-controlled Council's spending priorities and decisions.
