INSIDE SUTTON: Labour and independent councillors form political alliance to challenge Nigel Farage’s party as official council opposition
EXCLUSIVE by CARL SHILTON
Micromanaged: Janey Gould (left) and Alison Long celebrate their election to Sutton Council – but some suggest they are being overseen by Farage party officials
Nick Mattey, the maverick independent councillor for Beddington, says that he received a threatening call to his private telephone yesterday morning in which someone claiming to represent Nigel Farage’s Reform party made threats of a legal challenge over the contested status of Sutton Council’s official opposition.
Tens of thousands of pounds of public money is at stake, as are places on the council’s various committees.
Sutton’s local elections last Thursday saw the opposition Conservatives wiped out, losing all their 20 seats as Reform Ltd undermined their votes, leaving the Liberal Democrats, who have controlled the council since 1986, to sweep to power with 51 of the borough’s 55 council seats.
The four other council seats saw Reform win their first places at Sutton Council, through Alison Long and Janey Gould in St Helier West. Labour’s last remaining Sutton councillor, Dave Tchil, managed to survive in Hackbridge, while Mattey is Sutton’s only independent. Continue reading
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