At a meeting of today’s Full Council at Birmingham City Council, a rat stood up and asked the Cabinet Member for Environment & Transport, Cllr Majid Mahmood (Lab, Bromford & Hodge Hill) if the council had a date by when the streets would be clear of rubbish and rats. The cabinet member did not have a date by which he could promise rubbish would be cleared from the streets, though.
Cllr Sam Forsyth (Ind, Quinton) then decried Labour’s rat tax, and announced that, on principle, she was “no longer a member of the Labour party”.
Cllr Clifton Welch (Conservative, Kingstanding), who asked Cllr Forsyth about Birmingham Labour's Rat Tax at today's Council meeting, said:
I welcome Cllr Forsyth resigning her Labour Membership. Birmingham Labour's 'Rat Tax' would be bad enough in normal times, but in the middle of Labour's bin strike when 21,000 tonnes of rubbish sits on the streets of Birmingham, Labour's Rat Tax is a vindictive and spiteful tax for Labour to be charging Brummies. I urge the rest of the Labour Councillors to show the same courage as Cllr Forsyth and also resign their Labour memberships.