LABOUR has been accused of betraying its roots by cutting city council funding to trade unions.

Union leaders have written to Brighton and Hove City Council leader Warren Morgan to object to the £50,000 cut to union paid facility time confirmed in Thursday’s budget.

Unison branch secretary Sue Beatty said the Labour group had treated unions “with contempt” and they would now be reconsidering their relationship with the administration.

Council leader Warren Morgan said all areas of the council had to take their fair share of cuts to protect frontline services.

Cllr Morgan said up to last year, the city council had ten posts across two unions, the GMB and Unison, following the creation of a number of additional positions under the last Conservative administration to deal with equal pay.

Under reductions in the 2016/17 and 2017/18 budgets, the number of posts will now by reduced to six shared between the two unions.

Unison has written to Cllr Morgan “voicing their concern” around the cut, proposed and voted for by the Labour group, during the “disastrous” £21 million cuts budget agreed at a seven-hour meeting on Thursday.

The union said it had already suffered a cut to a full-time post at last year’s budget, which had made it more difficult for the union to support its members through “some very difficult cuts to services”.

More than 500 council employees are set to go through consultations on their jobs in the upcoming weeks as the authority looks to cut around 140 posts.

Mrs Beatty said: “The cut to our facilities time at this year’s budget meeting was as a direct result of a proposal put into the budget by the Labour Group, the very politicians that we would expect and hope would want to see us able to carry out the fundamental support and representation of our members during such difficult times as they are currently facing in their services.

“We see this as an absolute betrayal of the long-standing working relationship this union has had with the Labour Group and do not expect the political party which was founded, and is funded, by trade unions to treat us with such contempt.

“I have written to Warren Morgan to express our dismay and concern.

“This branch shall now be meeting to discuss how best we deal with the continued priority of supporting our members as well as the future relationship between ourselves and the Labour group in Brighton and Hove.”

Cllr Morgan said the 40 per cent reduction for the union was in line with the overall cuts to the council imposed by the Conservative Government and still leaves the council with three times the level of full-time support as most other comparator authorities.

He added: “It’s important that staff in the council have access to representation via their trades union.

“Most councils have one full-time trades union position funded by the council per union.

“As with the significant cuts to councillor allowances we have agreed, it’s right that everyone bears their fair share of cuts to protect front-line staff and services.”