Sunderland Conservatives blast council leader over Boris Johnson 'dither and delay' remarks

After the PM announced the third national lockdown on the night of Monday, January 4, Councillor Graeme Miller, leader of Sunderland City Council, said failure to move into a blanket lockdown similar to that imposed in March 2020 will have “cost many lives and will do untold damage to the economy”.

He added the “PM’s track record of over promising for political gain means that not only public health, but public confidence, has been severely compromised” and Mr Johnson was more concerned about “politics” and “popularity” than public health.

Sunderland’s Conservatives have branded the comments made by Cllr Miller as “stupid” and “opportunistic”.

“Graeme Miller is in no position to accuse others of playing politics,” said Councillor Antony Mullen, leader of Sunderland Conservatives.

“These are stupid and opportunistic comments.”

Cllr Mullen called on Cllr Miller to adopt a more constructive approach to his rhetoric around the Government’s efforts to tackle the pandemic.

“Graeme’s initial response to the pandemic was mature and non-partisan. Clearly it is he who is now more concerned with politics than public health,” he said.

“Accusations of this nature do not help anybody - particularly at a time when we should all be encouraging people to take responsibility for their own actions, not seeking to blame others.

“We can only imagine the outrage if, focusing on failures closer to home, we said his party’s negligent handling of children’s services over many years meant he had cost lives.”

Cllr Mullen was referencing the debacle in which Sunderland City Council’s Children’s Services department was rated “inadequate” by inspectors in 2015, with a follow-up inspection finding work on improvements was “too slow”.

Since 2017 children’s services in Sunderland have been run by Together for Children (TfC), an organisation created to take charge of the department following 2015’s damning Ofsted inspection.

TfC chief executive Jill Colbert said in 2020 a monitoring visit by inspectors had proved positive and she was hoping the service would return to a “good” rating in 2021.

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