Lib Dems are outraged as Labour leader of Haringey Council, Charles Adje, made a mockery of democracy in the borough by giving a 25 minute speech in response to an oral question, talking out the time available for other questions to be asked.

His lengthy speech was in response to an oral question tabled at a meeting of Haringey Council by Liberal Democrat Leader of the Opposition Cllr Neil Williams, concerning the Audit Commission’s report into the massive £10m budget overspend on the controversial Tech Refresh IT project.

Refusing to answer the question directly, Cllr Adje spoke for a full 25minutes. As a result, of ten tabled questions only two were reached.

The third question was to the Labour Executive Member for Organisational Development & Performance, Cllr Takki Sulaiman, asking if he would apologise for this massive overspend and accept responsibility. Another Liberal Democrat opposition councillor later asked this during a debate and Cllr Sulaiman would not respond.

Cllr Neil Williams, Leader of the Opposition, comments:

“The Labour Leader started his 25 minute non-answer to my question by saying he did not believe in ‘Yah Boo’ politics. But by treating the Council to his party political speech instead of properly answering the question on this massive IT over-spend shows what he really believes in. His contempt for democracy was clear for everyone to see.”

Cllr Matt Davies, Fortis Green Councillor, who was due to ask the third oral question, comments:

“The Labour Leader decided to protect Cllr Sulaiman from having to apologise for this fiasco. By talking for so long that there was no time for the question to be put. When speaking in the debate later, I invited Cllr Sulaiman to make an apology to the taxpayers of Haringey over his role in this mess, but he chose not to. Haringey Labour seem to be hoping that if they refuse to accept responsibility or apologise that no one will notice and they will be given another four years to repeat all their tired mistakes.”