SOUTHAMPTON LABOUR FUNDING: How Long Would It Take Us To Find Something Amiss in Southampton Labour Party Funding?

 

Satvir Kaur Accepting a Cheque from Persimmon Homes
Outside... The Arts Complex
Photo: Persimmon Homes

Satvir Kaur Former Labour Councillor
Photo: Southampton City Council

  

NOT LONG... About ten minutes if you know where to look...

Yesterday, we published part of the minutes of Southampton Labour Party Executive Committee from 2017 where the then Leader of the Council Simon Letts told them that he would be closing the Kentish Road Respite Centre for vulnerable adults.

If the minutes are accurate, it appears that there was very weak opposition from Labour Party members on that Committee, including now Green Party Agent Lisa Fricker.

Then Letts followed through on his decision, much to the anger of families in Southampton.

So how is the Southampton Labour Party organised? 

How is the Southampton Labour Party funded?

And is it legitimately funded?

If you look on the Electoral Commission website, you will see a donation from Shere Sattar to Satvir Kaur's campaign in Southampton Test. Satvir Kaur is now the Labour MP for Southampton Test.

 

Shere Sattar Donation to Southampton Labour on Electoral Commission website
Image: Southampton Independents

This is the same Shere Sattar who the Daily Echo's Jason Lewis in 2025 reported as follows:

"A donation made to a Southampton Labour MP by a convicted criminal during the general election campaign was returned “very shortly afterwards”, the party has confirmed.

The £10,000 donation to Southampton Test Labour was part of around £40,000 given to the party by businessman Abdul Sattar Shere-Mohammod last year.

Satvir Kaur, who was elected MP for Southampton Test in July 2024, declared the donation on the register of members’ interests, with its registration date listed as August 2, 2024." 

So with some know-how, it literally took ten minutes to find something amiss in how Satvir Kaur is funded, and how the Southampton Labour Party is funded.

And what of Satvir Kaur's links with Mr Sattar?

Satvir Kaur in Daily Echo

In 2016, Satvir Kaur was quoted in the Daily Echo in an article containing quotes from her and Shere Sattar, alleging:

"A HUGE gathering of Muslims in Southampton has been cancelled due to escalating racial tensions after the EU Referendum...  

Southampton’s communities chief, Satvir Kaur, said she had received reports of racist abuse aimed at Polish and Asian residents after the referendum and there have been reports of racially aggravated abuse across the UK in the wake of the vote to leave the EU.

But police have say they have recorded less reports of hate crime in the week after the referendum than those before." 

The Echo reported in 2025 that:

"It is understood [Shere Sattar] was expelled from the Labour Party in August 2022 after it was informed about the criminal conviction."

Andrew Pope says: 

 

Andrew Pope
Photo: Southampton Independents

 

"This is no surprise to me. Before this scandal broke, I phoned Shere Sattar to ask him about his links with Satvir Kaur. He didn't want to answer.

Labour accepted funds from Shere Sattar for Satvir Kaur and her General Election campaign, despite Labour having expelled him from the party. 

This scandal involving Satvir Kaur, and the Labour Party and Satvir Kaur accepting a donation from a convicted criminal, also brings into question his allegations about alleged racism in relation to Brexit.

His allegations appear in the same article in which Satvir Kaur is quoted going along with his allegations about racism, so her claims also need to be questioned, as well as further questions on how she and Southampton Labour are funded. 

More questions need answers in relation to Kaur and her associates and funders."

EXCLUSIVE: Bankrupt Southampton Labour-run Council Appoints Its Own Councillors To Committees To Cover Up Its Failures

 

Bankrupt Southampton Labour Council
Using Your Money To Cover Up Their Failures

The Councillor Chair of the new Audit Committee at Southampton City Council is from the same Southampton Labour Party that has bankrupted the Council. But it's even worse than that...

As reported by Southampton Independents in early 2023, the Labour-run Southampton City Council was warned that it was on the brink of bankruptcy by the Chief Financial Officer, who then resigned and did not attend the budget meeting of the Council.

The Labour Party's Leader of the Council at the time is now Southampton Test MP Satvir Kaur. She led the Council to the precipice, and then quit at the end of 2023. 

The Captain who sunk the Council's ship then abandoned it - not the done thing really in a maritime City. And then once elected as an MP, Kaur quit the Council completely.

Satvir Kaur left a trail of destruction in the Council finances, in Council transparency and amongst the Council officers. She also chose the members of her Cabinet, including the Cabinet Member of Finance, who we shall come to in a moment.

The Chief Executive Officer Mike Harris also quit late in 2023 / early 2024, citing health difficulties relating to the job and the financial crisis.

So to sum up, who had quit in just one year? 

1. The Leader of the Council, who had only been Leader for eighteen months before resigning.
   
2. The Chief Financial Officer
3. The Chief Executive Officer

This is a spectacular failure of leadership by Satvir Kaur, chosen by Labour councillors - and Labour councillors only - to be Leader of the Council.

And the Cabinet Member for Finance during all of was Labour Councillor Steve Leggett, and to emphasise, the Cabinet including him were all chosen by Satvir Kaur.

Labour Councillor Steve Leggett
Former Cabinet Member for Finance

 

When the full horror of the Council finances that she presided over was realised - even by Satvir Kaur - Councillor Steve Leggett was then sacked from the Cabinet by Kaur around July 2023, as can be seen in the Council's agenda and minutes. The minutes of Full Council record that Leggett had "stood down" after "five years" as Cabinet member:

"The Leader formally announced changes to Cabinet...

Councillor Leggett had stood down from Finance and Change and been replaced by Councillor Letts who had previous held office as the Cabinet Member for Finance as well as Leader of the Council, and that Waste would be moving to Environment and Transport."

Kaur had also falsely claimed to the media in 2023 that it was a "lie" that the Council was bankrupt, contradicting her own finance officer, the chief executive, the facts of the Council finances that showed the glaring black hole between income and expenditure, and the many media reports of the crisis.

Just a few months later in December 2023, Kaur resigned as Leader.

A year later, the Council is still struggling to balance its budget.

It has been given permission to sell off its assets by Government to pay the daily bills - a so-called "capitalisation direction". Normally councils are not allowed to do this. It is the equivalent of selling off your family silver to pay your bills.

And the Labour-run Council also tried to hide its dirty secret that it had asked the Government to put our Council Tax up by 15%. It all came out during a public meeting. We reported it in May 2024.

And Southampton Independents had predicted Southampton Labour would do it, over a year before in March 2023, because we saw what Labour did in Croydon (bankrupted the Council and then denied it) and had warned Southampton residents about it by reporting on it and informing local media.

So has the Council turned over a new leaf? No, it is looking to cover up its failures to protect the Labour Party, instead of confessing to its failings.

In July 2024, which amazingly is the anniversary that Steve Leggett had left the Cabinet as Member for Finance, a new "Audit Committee" was created at the Council.

You may say that this was too late. You would be right. The ship's bow was already teetering on the brink of the water a year before. having been sunk by Kaur and her Labour cronies.

How seriously should we take this "Audit Committee"? Not very, we suggest...

Let's play a game shall we?

Question: Well... can you guess who the Chair of the Audit Committee is... 

Labour Councillor Steve Leggett
Chair of the New Audit Committee

A quick check of the agenda and minutes of the Committee and you can see that it is...

Answer: The one and only... Labour Councillor Steve Leggett!

Talk about Southampton Labour councillors marking their own homework!

Residents ask us what can we do when Labour has a majority of councillors? We say that we work together with residents to expose and challenge the Council, and to work to reduce the number of Labour councillors. And as you can see above, we have done that. Already, the number of Labour councillors is reducing. They lost the Shirley by-election, for example.

Our founder Andrew Pope has written to the Council officer in charge of governance, the "Director of Legal and Governance and Monitoring Officer", whose name is Richard Ivory. Mr Ivory is the only officer of the three statutory senior officers who is still with the Council after all of the above changes to Leader, Chief Executive and Chief Financial Officer.

They will only steady the ship with proper scrutiny and challenge. But of course Southampton Labour councillors do not want that. They prefer to appoint Labour people to cover up their failings.

Former Councillor Pope suggested to Mr Ivory that the Constitution of the Council should state that the Chair of the Audit Committee should not be from the same party. Perhaps it should be an independently-minded councillor, instead of the same councillor who took the Council to the brink, from the same political party.

The Director of Legal stated that it was councillors that decide who the Chair is, and that:

"ordinarily and by convention the Chair would be from the Administration"

So the Chair of "Audit" is a stitch-up by the councillors on the Audit Committee, the majority of whom are Labour! And the Committee was only created a year after Councillor Leggett "stood down" (or was sacked) from the Cabinet.

Southampton Labour City Councillors' Job Cuts and EXTRA £3 MILLION On Consultants - To Add to Existing £9 Million

 

 

At a Southampton City Council meeting on 24th October, it was reported that a total of £12.1 million would be spent by the Labour-run Council over two years as part of their "Transformation Programme".

Previously, the total figure on consultants was "only" £9 million.

Not only would £9 million be spent on consultants Newton. An extra £3.1 million would be spent on other consultants, including those advising on "waste" and "leisure".

Co-founder of Southampton Independents and former Shirley by-election candidate Andrew Pope says:

"As a resident I find this extra £3.1m even more outrageous than the £9 million, and an admission that the Labour Administration and its officers are even more clueless than we already knew.

On the doorsteps of Shirley, the £9 million went down very badly with residents.

An extra £3.1 million will make many more Southampton residents unhappy with the way the Labour Party is running, has run down, and continues to run down the Council.

It's our money they are spending. And all this while cutting even more jobs, up to 168 of them. So much for those council employees who thought that Labour would save jobs."

Bankrupt Labour Council Loses £12 million of Public Money in Property Sell-off

Labour Councillors Robbing YOUR Money

by Andrew Pope, former Southampton City Councillor 2011-2019, 11th August 2024

Andrew Pope, Independent Southampton City Councillor
on BBC South Today

Labour loses £12 million of public money in property sell-off

In late 2022, I investigated and reported on the Labour-run Council, led then by now MP Councillor Satvir Kaur, on their sell-off of Council-owned land on the cheap for "affordable housing".

That report mentioned a Cabinet meeting of 20th December 2022, a meeting which Councillor Kaur chaired as Leader of the Council. 

At that meeting, Kaur's Cabinet approved a report where "best value" for sales of land for the "Affordable Housing Framework" would not be achieved.

Councils are required by law to achieve "best value" for the taxpayer when selling off public assets. But in that report, this requirement was sidelined in the recommendations to Cabinet.

This was in stark contrast to the requirement for "best value" being stated to be adhered to by the previous Conservative Administration of the Council in a report written by Council officers and presented to Cabinet in March 2022 and also in the presentation on the "Affordable Housing Framework" created by Council officers at the time.

It appears that Kaur's Labour Administration seemed to have mysteriously changed the policy, after Kaur became Leader in May 2022. Best value became not best value.

There is now evidence that Labour have not achieved "best value" in the sale of another taxpayer-owned asset.

Questions were raised last month by opposition councillors on Southampton City Council about the sale of One Guildhall Square. 

Let's look at the sums.

The freehold of land for the building was bought by the Council for £25 million.

Outrageously, the Council's own accounts show that it was sold for HALF of that amount, for £12.75 million net of VAT.

Far from being an investment, this is a massive £12.25 million LOSS for the taxpayer.

Yet Labour Councillor Simon Letts (the councillor we exposed in the Echo as saying he did not care about the Arts Complex overspends - see Echo front page from April 2018) defended the decision. 

 

Councillor Simon Letts "doesn't want to know why"
Arts Centre Faces Millions Over-Spend, Echo April 2018

 

Incredibly, Council officers had still claimed that "best value" was achieved in the sale of One Guildhall Square. How can that be? It is not true. Council officers are being forced by Labour to defend the indefensible.

The Labour Administration's policy of a fire sale, or a sell-off, call it what you will, has been set.

Do not forget that the Council is effectively bankrupt and having to sell, borrow or make cuts to balance the books. Against normal prudential restrictions, Government has allowed them to sell off the family silver to pay the bills.

This is a bankruptcy which Councillor Satvir Kaur said when Leader was a "lie", despite all the evidence contrary to her ignorant and incompetent leadership of the Council.

Kaur remains a Councillor, despite being elected to Parliament on 4th July 2024. You would have thought that she would have resigned in shame. But she has not.

What damage could she do if she got her hands on national public assets? The mind boggles.

Meanwhile, it will not be reassuring anybody that the Chair of the Council's Audit Committee is none other than Labour Councillor Steve Leggett, who presided over the bankruptcy of the Council as Cabinet Member for Finance.

Talk about Labour councillors marking their own homework!

 

Leader of Southampton City Council Satvir Kaur Denies Bankruptcy - Just Like Labour Councillors Did in Bankrupt Croydon Council

 

Councillor Satvir Kaur Bankruptcy "Lie" Claim
Daily Echo Website, 20th May 2023

The Labour Leader of Southampton City Council, Councillor Satvir Kaur, has told the Daily Echo that:

"Unlike Hampshire County Council we are not facing bankruptcy. To say otherwise is a lie and political opportunism."

As confirmed by local investigative reporters Inside Croydon, when we asked them about Satvir Kaur's claim:

"Funny. That’s what @CroydonLabour leader Tony Newman said in Oct 2020"

Like Councillor Kaur, Tony Newman, the former Labour Leader of Croydon Borough Council in London, also repeatedly denied a financial crisis. Newman shortly after resigned in October 2020, having plunged the Council into bankruptcy, later with the councillors left having to call Government commissioners in. Labour councillors were voted out. 

Now Croydon councillors want to put the Council Tax up by 15%! And the Tory Government - with the help of Croydon Labour councillors caving in - is going to let them do it! 

Residents are being robbed by Labour and Tory councillors, yet it was no fault of the local residents.

Labour or Tory, same old story? You bet it is!

The Dead Labour Rose of Southampton

Did you know that Southampton Council is in such a dire financial situation? Labour councillors including the Leader of the Council are in denial, but financial experts have repeatedly warned them.

Labour councillors don't want you to know. So we are telling you.

Did Councillor Kaur know? She should, shouldn't she, in her role? 

As well as calling the bankruptcy claims by her own Chief Financial Officer a "lie", Satvir Kaur also denied to the Daily Echo knowing about a report by the External Auditor, Kevin Suter of Ernst and Young. Mr Suter's report issued a warning to councillors that the Council is running out of money, at a public meeting of councillors on 24th April 2023 called the Governance Committee.

Satvir Kaur told the Daily Echo: 

"she was 'not aware' of the report".

Yet somehow, the Leader of the Council did not know about this worrying independent auditor's report to councillors. How can that be? She is supposed to be the Leader!

The Council auditor's warning follows another financial expert, the Council's former Chief Financial Officer warning councillors of a lack of money and then quitting the Council in February. A new Chief Financial Officer was appointed by Councillor Kaur and her Conservative opposition leader.

Does it worry you that this is the same person, Mel Creighton, who resigned last year from Liverpool City Council (another Labour Council) amid controversy over financial management? In its report, the Liverpool Echo cited a £16 million energy contract disaster. 

Does it worry you that prior to joining Liverpool City Council, Ms Creighton was the Chief Financial Officer at Southampton City Council?

Knowing all of the above, do you have confidence in Labour to run the City's finances? As reported by Southampton Independents, an independent report last year told councillors that the council was not being run properly.

Do you think the Council has spent wisely? As investigated and reported by Southampton Independents, we know that it has not, and has wasted millions if not billions over the last decade. 

Residents were shocked and angry when we told them what the Council and its councillors had done. They voted for our Independent candidates in the local elections and General Election, which we were grateful for.

Did you know that Labour has been in control of the Council for 10 out of the last 11 years? The other year was the Conservatives running the Council, whose national Government, now with Rishi Sunak as its latest Prime Minister, has slashed funding for councils and in May's local elections, lost over 1,000 seats.

Residents tell us very often that it's another case of Labour or Tory and the same old story. Do you agree?

Are you happy that the Labour-run Council has put up council tax again this year, when the cost of living is so high? Are you struggling to pay your bills? Do you get value for money for your council tax? Do you get value for money for your income tax that goes to the Conservative Government?

Contact us at the link here to tell us your views. You can also comment below.

This is why Southampton needs Independent councillors, like it used to have a few years ago.

Labour Bankrupts Croydon Then Allows 15% Council Tax Increase - Could It Happen in Southampton? Yes. Here's Why...

Croydon Labour's Rose Is Dead

 

Croydon Borough Council in London voted this week to hit residents with a FIFTEEN PERCENT INCREASE TO COUNCIL TAX!

by Andrew D Pope, 10th March 2023

 

Co-Founder of Southampton Independents
and Former Independent Councillor Andrew Pope

 

Croydon Labour Makes Residents Pay For Labour Bankrupting Croydon

This massive increase to council tax bills is during:

• a cost-of-living crisis for citizens
  
• with inflation running at record levels
  
• energy bills through the roof
• mortgages doubling for many people 

And all with "Southampton boy" Rishi Sunak's Conservative Government running the worst-performing economy in the G7 of industrialised nations. It is no wonder that the Conservatives are so far behind in the opinion polls, given their atrocious record in Government. And it is no wonder that the Southampton Conservative Leader Councillor Dan Fitzhenry declined to comment, when we gave him the opportunity to defend the Conservatives locally and nationally.

But are Labour any better? No, they are not. The evidence is clear from Croydon, from Liverpool (more later) and here in Southampton. Southampton Council's own outgoing Chief Financial Officer issued the warning last month, and then left almost immediately after as exclusively revealed by Southampton Independents.

Labour or Tory, Same Old Story

As reported by Inside Croydon, Labour councillors abstained on the vote to allow the Conservative Elected Mayor to bring in a 15% increase to council tax. They had previously said that they would vote it down, but they caved into pressure, instead of standing up for Croydon residents.

It was Labour councillors that had allowed Croydon to slip into bankruptcy over years. They were running the Council. 

Previously, the Conservative Government brought in a law meaning that a Referendum was needed for council tax increases of 5% or more. But the Tories now are welching on that protection for citizens. It seems that the Government is going to allow Croydon Tories to impose 15% on citizens. That is not democracy. It is undemocratic, because the people of Croydon do not want it as proved by a heavily-backed petition.

 

Croydon Does Not Have A Functioning Democracy

It was Inside Croydon and local citizens - and not other media outlets - who exposed the Labour councillors for the charlatans that they are. Not only did Labour and Tory councillors let Croydon residents down, other media outlets did too. 

This is what passes for "democracy" in Croydon, with a failing Council, failing councillors and officers and local media who were not reporting on what mattered. It was only Inside Croydon, founding member of a community news network, that exposed the full truth.

Effectively, unelected bureaucrats were brought in from Whitehall (called an Improvement Panel) to take over from the failed councillors. 

So Croydon became not a democracy, but a bureaucracy imposed from Central Government, because councillors had abrogated their responsibility to represent the people and protect public money.

Then Labour were voted out, somewhat unsurprisingly, and an Elected Mayor was voted in, who is a Conservative. He claimed, somewhat echoing former Conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, that "there is no alternative" to the 15% increase.

There are alternatives, in the decisions made, in spending priorities, in alternative budgets and in alternatives to the Westminster parties. They are called independent councillors. But Croydon has no independent councillors.

Croydon Labour councillors did not bring forward an alternative budget. If they had, perhaps they could have salvaged some respectability from their previous bankrupt decisions.

But they did not. Instead, by abstaining on the vote, they allowed the Tories to knife the public yet again.

So it is the people of Croydon who will be bailing out the finances of Croydon, caused by councillors who failed in their public duty to look after the public finances of the Borough.

 

Could It Happen in Southampton? 

Yes it could... Why and how?

Southampton Independents has reported on Labour-run Southampton City Council ever since we were formed. We have shown that they have spent public money on the wrong things, while neglecting the City and the priorities that residents want money to be spent on. I resigned from Labour because they were making the wrong decisions for Southampton and co-founded Southampton Independents.

We have reported on Southampton Labour councillors flogging off public land below market rates, and failing to get maximum value for the taxpayer. And doing it in secret, behind-closed-doors.

We have reported on the way they appointed senior officers in secret and handed out a fortune of public money to those senior officers while the finances of Southampton slip towards bankruptcy.

We have reported on the weak Conservative Opposition, who had control of the Council for just one year. Councillor Dan Fitzhenry as Leader of the Conservatives declined to comment when we asked him about his alternative budget. He did not have one. Yet we understand that Fitzhenry is telling his Conservative colleagues that they could take control of the Council in the all-out elections in May.

When you have a weak and incompetent Leader like Councillor Satvir Kaur, and a Cabinet that is clueless, with an Opposition that seems more like a cheerleader, it is the public that suffers.

That is exactly what happened in Croydon.

And in Liverpool too, also run by Labour... but more of that another time.

 

What Will Happen in Southampton?

If Labour continue with control of Southampton City Council, they will have to plug the financial blackhole that they have created, with the help of Conservative councillors and the chaotic Conservative Government that has slashed grant funding to councils since 2010.

One way to do that is to cut spending.

 

Can't Pay Won't Pay

Another is to put up council tax. They have already put it up AGAIN this year.

I have written to Southampton City Council Leader Councillor Satvir Kaur to offer her a right of reply. She has not responded.

I have also warned her that any such attempt to raise council tax along the lines of her Croydon Labour colleagues, will be resisted.

In Croydon, they have already began a "Can't Pay, Won't Pay" campaign and thousands of residents have signed up.

Could it happen in Southampton? Yes it could. Will it? We will see.

 

Councillors Dish Out Money To Highly Paid Officers and Decide the Budget in Secret - And Now Southampton City Council Is Near Bankruptcy

 

Former Councillor Andrew Pope
Speaking on BBC South Today

by Andrew D Pope*, 27th February 2023

Last week, at the February 2023 Budget Full Council of councillors, Southampton residents were horrified to hear the dire warnings of the state of the finances of Southampton City Council. This is public money, after all.

As reported by Southampton Independents, the Budget Full Council heard that councillors had been spending public money "unsustainably", leaving the Council in a "precarious financial position". The Council is near bankruptcy because it could soon be having to issue a Section 114 notice. Put simply, Labour has been spending too much money.

The warnings came from the Chief Financial Officer John Harrison, who we exclusively reported has now left. It appears from Mr Harrison's LinkedIn posts available to the public that his departure was planned months ago with the knowledge of Council officers - and presumably with the knowledge of the Leader of the Council, Councillor Satvir Kaur. As far as we are aware, no other local media outlet has reported his departure, and the Council itself was silent in its press release on the Budget. Such silence is worrying, given the parlous state of the City.

So where did the money go? Southampton Independents has reported on the profligate spending of Labour over the ten years it has spent and mis-spent millions if not billions of public monies at the Council.

Like ten of the least eleven years, Labour has been in control of the Council money and the Council Budget. This is not public money. This is not the Labour Party's money. It belongs to the people of Southampton. The Budget Full Council is decided in public, but last week there were items on the agenda that were deemed to have to be discussed without the press and public being able to see it.

Southampton Labour Allows More High Pay for Council Officers

In April 2022, the Taxpayers Alliance compiled a Council "rich list" of high pay at councils in England.

Southampton City Council appeared on that list. According to the information, the Labour-run Authority had doubled the number employees paid a six-figure sum - £100,000 or more.

It was reported that:

"During the 2020 and 2021 financial year, 12 staff members took home a six-figure salary – up from nine the previous year."

Whatever your views about the pay of Council officers being paid over £100,000, it is councillors that have allowed it. But it is only a special select group of councillors - most are not involved.

Millions Of Public Money Dished Out In Secret By A Few Councillors

But it is not just the Budget that has elements decided in secret. The decisions over employment of senior officers and their pay is also done behind closed doors. 

It is councillors who decide the salary of senior Council employees and who choose chief officers. But it is only a select group of councillors that do so. The vast majority of councillors are not involved in the committee that decides. It is called the Chief Officer Employment Panel. 

This Panel is normally just a handful of people, even as low as three councillors and usually the Leader of the Council, Leader of the Opposition Group and possibly one or two others. The meetings are minuted but the vast majority of the detail is hidden from public view behind agenda items that involve exclusion of the press and public. When you add up all these officers on more than £100,000 each the total becomes millions of pounds.

Making Decisions in Secret But You Voted Them In To Act For You

It is that small group of councillors that the people of Southampton should be asking questions of, because they are ones responsible for the appointment of these officers and their pay. And the dire state of the public finances is mostly down to the Labour Party that has been in control of the Budget for ten of the eleven years since 2012. Officers are supposed to advise councillors, and councillors are supposed to provide strategic oversight and direction to officers.

Neverthess, the total of senior officer pay is a small amount compared with the overall budget of the Council. However, the parlous state of the Council and its finances are decided by councillors, in co-ordination with officers who are supposed to provide wise advice to councillors. At the 2023 Budget, a long paper was presented to councillors to remind them of their responsibilities. It remains to be seen quite why they needed reminding. Surely councillors are already acting responsibly. Or are they?

Since the Taxpayers Alliance research, Labour has restructured the senior officers. The Chief Executive was changed. And now the Chief Financial Officer has left. Such turnover does not breed confidence in the leadership by Labour and in particular by Satvir Kaur, who is also Labour's Parliamentary Candidate for Southampton Test, with incumbent MP Alan Whitehead "retiring".

The People Voted Them In And Can Vote Them Out

There will be all-out elections in May 2023. The people can choose who represents them, because all 51 council seats will be up for election due to boundary changes. Whether the people will be able or willing to boot out those responsible for the current financial disaster, remains to be seen.

* Andrew Pope was a Southampton City Councillor between 2011-2019, being affiliated to Labour between 2011 to 2015 and Independent 2015 to 2019. He holds a Masters degree in Global Politics from Southampton University and is in training with the National College for the Training of Journalists.

EXCLUSIVE: Southampton City Council Warned Of Bankruptcy By Chief Financial Officer Who Left Immediately After

And the Council Chief Executive Officer declines to comment...

by Andrew D Pope*, 25th February 2023

Andrew Pope, former Independent Councillor

Southampton City Council is in a financial crisis and the captain has just left the boat after telling everyone that it is sinking. But the rats are still on board.

At its annual Budget meeting on Wednesday 22nd February 2023, Labour-run Southampton City Council was warned that it was near bankruptcy, in a "precarious" financial position and was spending unsustainably. 

The warnings came in the report to elected councillors by the Chief Financial Officer (a.k.a. Executive Director Finance and Commercialisation [S151]) John Harrison, who Southampton Independents can exclusively reveal has now left the Council, just days after signing off the reports that were presented to councillors. Mr Harrison's departure, confirmed by his LinkedIn page, seems to have been immediately after his warnings. Nevertheless, his name appeared at the top of the report to councillors, as shown on the Council's own website. 

So was the ship sinking? Or was it not sinking? Mr Harrison would also have signed off the Section 25 under the Local Government Act 2003, a very grave duty for an Officer of a Council. 

The report to councillors states:

"The Chief Financial Officer is required to make a statement on the adequacy of reserves and the robustness of the budget. This is a statutory duty under Section 25 of the 2003 Local Government Act. This statement is longer than normal, because of the considerable financial risks the authority now faces."

Several pages follow to underline the risks, including warnings of a "precarious" position, consideration of cuts to budgets, a potential serious S114 notice stopping all but essential spending and more.

Ultimately, in a democracy, it is the Leader of the Council Satvir Kaur that has to answer to local residents at the ballot box in May. That is, if residents are aware of this crisis.

We are trying to determine the full reasons for Mr Harrison's departure, but we understand that his departure may have been planned. Without any statement from Mr Harrison or from the Council at budget time, who knows? Mr Harrison cannot be contacted at the Council any longer.

But the timing could not be worse for our City or its finances. Perhaps the Council could have clarified this, but the Council did not mention Mr Harrison's departure in its press release on the Budget. Neither have other local media outlets, at the time of publication of this article.

Southampton Independents reported on the dire inancial warnings earlier this week. The Chief Executive Officer Mike Harris was offered the right of reply, as both he and the Leader of the Council, Labour Councillor Satvir Kaur, were named in the article.

Chief Executive Declines To Comment

In his response, Mr Harris declined to comment. He said:

"Your article is a political blog, and as a politically neutral council officer, I have no comment to make"

Mr Harris would have known about Mr Harrison's departure. He could have commented. But he did not.

At the time of writing, Councillor Kaur has not responded to our request for comment. She would also have known about Mr Harrison's departure and his replacement, Mel Creighton. Ms Creighton was in the same Chief Financial Officer (S151) post before Mr Harrison.

We also contacted the (now former) Chief Financial Officer Mr Harrison by email. An automatic email response was returned (more junior officers have been redacted, because we only name the most senior officers):

"I am now on leave ahead of my final day in post with Southampton City Council on Friday 24th February 2023. .<redacted>.. From Monday 27th February Mel Creighton will take up the post of Executive Director - please redirect any queries to her at Mel.Creighton@southampton.gov.uk after this date, or contact her PA <redacted>"

Labour or Tory, Same Old Story

The usual blame game gibberish has been spouted by Labour Council Leader Satvir Kaur in trying to blame the Tories. As reported by us in our analysis of who has been in power, the Labour Party has been in power in Southampton's Civic Centre for a decade from 2012 to now, except for just one year in 2021/22 when the Conservatives took control. 

And in response the Conservative Spokesman for the Council Budget, Councillor John Hannides has tried to blame Labour. Labour councillors have been the ones making the decisions for almost all of the last eleven years. 

Yet Tory councillors have applauded many of their decisions, with Tory Councillors like Jeremy Moulton even claiming some of the Labour decisions as their own. To put the Council finances in context, the Conservatives have been in power in Westminster since 2010 and as reported by us previously, have savagely cut grant funding to councils, restricted council tax rises and left the country in an economic mess.

As a Former Councillor, I Warned The Council And Residents

In my eight years on the Council, I sat through and spoke at annual Budget meetings, challenging spending and the decisions of whomever was in control of the Council. I was also due to takeover the City's finances as Cabinet Member for Finance. But I declined the opportunity, because I knew that the officers at the council and the other councillors in Cabinet were not up to the job, in the context of the Westminster party system and Leader and Cabinet model of running the Council. 

The current situation proves that I was right. I was not going to go down with the Council under the captaincy of Labour's failed leaders. Instead of joining the Labour Cabinet, in 2015 I quit Labour to become an Independent councillor. And with Southampton Independents and its team, I worked to warn residents and hold the Council's failures to account. I am still doing it, now as a volunteer and reporter - not a councillor. It appears that Mr Harrison has made a similar calculation, after providing the dire warnings officially this week.

Think About The Future Of Southampton

Amid the boring and predictable Labour and Tory bickering, one thing is for sure, as we always say, it's another case of Labour or Tory, same old story. And it's the people of Southampton who will pay the price for the failures of the Westminster parties, their councillors and of Westminster MPs to protect our City.

There will be all-out elections in May for the Council. The people of Southampton could vote a Modern Committee System in later this year, as voted for by the people of  Sheffield and Bristol, if Independent councillors are voted in. Let's see whether that happens or whether Southampton gets more of the same old story.

* Andrew D Pope is one of the co-founders of Southampton Independents and was a councillor between 2011-2019, being Labour between 2011 and 2015 and an Independent between 2015 and 2019. He chose not to stand in 2019.