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| Southampton Labour Took Criminal Money Now The Highways Contract is a Scandal |
As reported by us, in 2024 Southampton Labour and Portsmouth Labour took money from a convicted violent criminal, a total of £30,000. Central Labour HQ also took another £10,000 bung. All despite the criminal being an Eastleigh Labour councillor and then being expelled from Labour in 2022.
We have reported on the Electoral Commission's statement that political parties CAN accept criminal money.
And Southampton Labour, and Portsmouth Labour, did. Not a nice thing to have in common between the two cities.
Our Exclusive Investigations Done by Volunteers
1. We exclusively showed the Electoral Commission's data showing the acceptance by Satvir Kaur and Southampton Labour of £10k from a convicted criminal. No other local media did.
2. We exclusively revealed Satvir Kaur's, Southampton Test Labour MP and Junior Minister, Ministerial Register of Interests. No other local media did. At the time of writing, to our knowledge, no other national media did.
3. We exclusively revealed Kaur's connection with disgraced Labour Together MP Josh Simons, who paid private investigators to investigate journalists. He was her maternity cover and resigned. No other local media did. At the time of writing, to our knowledge, no other national media did.
4. We exclusively revealed Satvir Kaur's husband's job - Head of External Affairs for Persimmon Homes, and that she did not consistently report it when Southampton councillor. We reported this to the Head of Legal at the Council, who took no action. Kaur herself only put this on any Parliamentary register of interests when she became a Junior Minister (see above). We also found a photo of Kaur accepting a cheque from Persimmon Homes, outside the Arts Complex. No other local media did, and neither has any national media... yet.
Labour And Taxpayers Money
So what are Labour like with handling YOUR money, your council tax money, your business rates and your national taxes redirected from Government?
Absolutely shocking, that is what residents say.
And Labour councillors do not want you to know. So they scheme to ensure that cover ups are preferred to investigations and transparency. Which brings us to number 5 on the list:
5. We have exclusively investigated and reported how Labour councillors are appointed by other Labour councillors to "scrutinise" those very same Labour councillors who sunk the finances of the Council - Satvir Kaur as Leader of the Council and Darren Paffey as Deputy, now both Labour MPs.
No other local media did. As Delia Smith once famously exclaimed: "Where are you?"
What is the State of Local Democracy in Southampton?
You may ask why is it that the other local media are not investigating like we are.
You should ask them. We have it on good authority from a previous Local Democracy Reporter, that he was told "not to upset MPs".
Now, we reveal what "transparency" means to Southampton City Council.
The Scandal of the £60 MILLION Balfour Beatty Highways Contract
A report hidden.
A report in teeny tiny writing that has to be zoomed into.
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| Council "Transparency Report" In Actual Published Format Image: Southampton Independents (AP) |
Can you read it? Thought not! Why is it in such tiny writing? Ask the Labour-run Council!
If you zoom in a lot, to over 300%, you can see the following:
"SCC-SMS-0832
Southampton Highways Partnership (SHP)
The Southampton Highways Partnership (SHP) (utilising the SCAPE Civil Engineering Framework) commenced on 1st October 2025 for a 5-year contract term with no extension provisions. The ìContractorî under the SHP is Balfour Beatty Civil Engineering (BBCE) acting as agent of Balfour Beatty Group Limited. The operational delivery of the contract continues to be undertaken by BBLP as a subcontractor to BBCE acting as agent of Balfour Beatty Group Limited.
Status SuccessfulBidValue EstimatedValue StartDate EndDate
Active £60,000,000 £60,000,000 01/10/2025 30/09/2030"
The report shows the huge scandal of the £60 million offered to Balfour Beatty for the Highways Partnership.
A contract extension by Labour of a Tory contract that has failed our City for sixteen years.
A contract awarded with no press release by the Council - confirmed to us by a Council officer.
A contract that we had to find from third-hand reports by the trade, instead of fanfare by the Council.
A contract "scrutinised" (obviously not very well up to this point) in secret by party politician councillors, but mostly handled by officers under "delegated authority".
A contract without competitive tendering.
A contract awarded by Southampton Labour councillors to Balfour Beatty, despite them being admitted blacklisters that used The Consulting Association blacklist. Balfour Beatty told Parliament that they had ceased using the blacklist.
And extended despite the Labour Council's own procurement rules preventing blacklisting.
Those rules were amended to prevent blacklisting by our very own Councillor Andrew Pope, in 2014 - one year before he quit Labour in disgust because they were not meeting their promises to Southampton and his people in Redbridge.
This was a contract initially drawn up by Rob Harwood when he was a senior council officer in 2010 and 2017. One year later in 2018, he then became a Tory councillor.
We asked him how he managed any perceived conflict of interest. He said our questions on this were "irrelevant" as did the Conservative Group Leader Councillor Peter Baillie. Baillie also praised the contract! Other Conservative councillors were copied into the questions. They said nothing.
Why Didn't the Local Media Report This?
Did we offer this not-very-transparent "transparency" report to the Daily Echo and the Local Democracy Reporter Jason Lewis, funded by the BBC? Yes we did, as an exclusive. Nothing.
More on that another time.
Serious questions have to be asked about local democracy in Southampton - whether the local media is fit for purpose, and whether the political parties are any good or not.
We know they're not. Not neither. It's all a bit too cosy and complacent. This is worrying for democracy in our City.
More on that too later.
