COUNCIL leader Warren Morgan has been accused of hypocrisy for launching a petition to the Prime Minister over council cuts having criticised the previous Green administration of “empty gestures of protest”.

Conservative group leader Geoffrey Theobald said the Labour leader was pandering to the left wing of his party in creating the Save Our Services petition.

The SOS petition, which has attracted almost 500 signatures in its first few days, calls on the Government to reverse billions of pounds in tax cuts and use the revenue to restore council finances.

The Labour leader said there was “enough money in the system” but the Conservative Government had made a conscious choice to offer tax breaks to the wealthiest.

The authority announced last week that it would make £24 million of cuts in 2017/18 which could lead to 140 council jobs being lost.

Cllr Morgan said the council's revenue support grant from Government will drop from £140 million to just £6 million over eight years by 2020 while council tax revenue no longer covered the authority's £150 million care bill.

The Labour leader said the funds needed for councils to continue delivering services was just a fraction of the billions of Government cuts to taxes on high earners, corporation tax and inheritance tax.

He added: “The Government has been giving money away to wealthy people while cutting £7.6 billion from local government.

“Local government is the most efficient part of government and yet we are expected to make even more cuts.”

Cllr Theobald said: “Labour criticised the previous Green administration for just this sort of thing.

“I will be asking a question at the next full council about cllr Morgan speaking on behalf of the city council without any resolution being passed which he can’t do as a minority administration.

“When we get to the budget, the £3 million gap will be found.

“If this wasn’t such a serious matter, I would describe it as hot air.”

Cllr Sykes said: “A council leader putting up a petition on change.org is a bit strange but good for him, I hope he gets lots of signatures.

“For Labour to accuse us of placard waving, there has been a long history of protest in the Labour movement and I don’t think there’s much wrong with protest.

“I would expect to see more protest from a Labour administration, we’ve seen that from Conservative councils who have been able to make their case get results quickly.

“Instead what I hear from Warren is that they are in the business of just managing the serious decline in the quality of our public services to the point where some will just disappear altogether and I think a Labour council should do much, much more than just manage that decline.”

To sign the petition visit change.org/p/theresa-may-mp-save-our-services.