The walkout—which occurred during a meeting on July 16—was prompted by a Conservative councillor being allowed to amend a motion that was first tabled to be brought before the council in July 2022.
Cllr Richard Diment’s motion, which was originally put forward by Cllr Kurtis Christoforides, concerned policing.
It criticised London Mayor Sadiq Khan for not providing Bexley with its “fair share” of police officers.
Since three years had passed since the motion was first tabled, Cllr Diment proposed to make several amendments to it.
The initial motion praised the previous Conservative government’s police recruitment numbers, and was critical of Sadiq Khan for not bringing enough of these officers to Bexley.
The amended motion was even more critical of Mr Khan, lambasting him for failing to recruit the full number of new police officers under the previous government’s Police Uplift Programme.
The criticism of the Mayor for not providing Bexley with its “fair share” of police officers remained.
When Cllr Diment proposed the amendments, he said they “did not materially affect the sense of the motion” but the red side of the council chamber disagreed.
Bexley’s Mayor Christine Catterall proclaimed the amendment was permissible and after giving members some time to read the new motion, Labour Leader Cllr Stefano Borella said: “This is not the first time Madame Mayor that an alteration has come which makes a mockery of the whole motion process, quite frankly.
“This amendment here is nothing like the original motion. It’s a totally new motion submitted here quite frankly, and I think it’s absolutely disgraceful.”
He criticised Cllr Diment for not letting him and his Labour colleagues see the amended motion before the meeting and then sought a recess to study the amendments. The meeting was adjourned for 15 minutes to allow this.
Following the end of the recess and just before Cllr Diment was to begin speaking on the motion, Cllr Borella said: “I think this is an absolute disgrace this evening. This is an affront to democracy and us, the Labour group, will not be participating in this debate.”
Following this, every Labour councillor vacated the chamber before Cllr Diment began to speak on the motion.
Cllr Diment said his motion was about “the prolonged failure of Sadiq Khan, as the Mayor of London and the Police and Crime Commissioner, to deliver on his promises to the people of London, and specifically this borough, about policing and making residents feel confident that they, their families, friends and neighbours are safe and their property is secure”.
During debate on the motion, several Conservative councillors criticised the Labour group for the walkout.
Cllr Howard Jackson called their actions “disgraceful” as did Cllr Chris Taylor, who said the walkout meant that the Labour group “didn’t care about community safety in this borough”.
This sentiment was echoed by Cllr Rags Sandhu, who was also particularly critical of Mayor Khan. He said: “He doesn’t like us here in Bexley because we’re probably one of the only London councils that will stand up and will question any decision he’s made because we want what’s right for our borough here in Bexley and we know he’s doing everything he can to ruin it.”
Cllr Cameron Smith was “not surprised” that Labour had chosen not to take part in the debate because the police numbers “were not what they promised people a year ago, and I don’t know how they would defend it”.
Cllr David Leaf requested for the motion to be voted on by roll call, which meant all councillors’ names were called alphabetically.
All those Tories present in the room voted for the motion when their names were called, whereas silence rang out when the names of Labour members were called.
The motion was carried and the Labour group returned to the chamber.
Following the walkout, Labour leader Cllr Borella said: “At the council meeting on July 16, Bexley Labour Group were ready to debate a motion from Bexley Conservative Group and defend the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan on his good record on police numbers and reducing crime in London since 2016, yet Bexley Conservatives deliberately decided not to show us before the meeting the changes they wanted for their original motion.
“This is why Bexley Labour group walked out of the debate because this administration doesn’t believe in fair debate, is tired, has run out of ideas and just wants to play pathetic political games.
“Next year’s local elections is an opportunity to vote out Bexley Tories after 20 years of managed decline in Bexley.”
