Andrew Dismore

In today’s City Hall Plenary  debate Andrew Dismore, Labour Parliamentary Candidate for Hendon, London Assembly member for Barnet and Camden and London Fire Authority (LFEPA) member  spoke against  the plans of Mayor Boris Johnson to rig the membership of the Fire Authority in his favour.

Mr Dismore said:

“The Mayor wants to remove elected Borough Councillors and Assembly members  from the Authority, and to replace them with his own unelected nominees, so that he will have a self appointed majority of his own supporters on LFEPA.

“The Fire Authority has done a good job standing up for  the Fire Brigade against the draconian cuts the Mayor imposed last year, which would have been far worse but for LFEPA’s resistance to him. As he could not get his own way on the Authority but was forced to use the threat of the courts to bulldoze through his cuts, the Mayor now wants to fiddle the membership of LFEPA so he can hide behind his ‘yes men’  and has someone else to blame.

“If Boris Johnson  gets his way, no doubt further cuts will follow, unopposed.

“Just like when Mrs Thatcher abolished the GLC as it refused to toe her line, so Boris Johnson wants to abolish  LFEPA altogether and to bring the Fire Brigade entirely under his control, using the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime (MOPAC) as its model.

“MOPAC has been a disaster. It is not transparent and is unresponsive to requests for information and explanations. It is unapproachable and distant from Londoners. This is not a model that should be followed.

“The Mayor should take his grubby hands off LFEPA and allow the Fire Authority to get on with its job without his day to day interference”.