Sunderland’s Conservatives have branded comments made by Labour Leader Graeme Miller, claiming that the Prime Minister has cost lives, “stupid” and “opportunistic”.
In comments made to the media, Cllr Miller said that Boris Johnson was more concerned about “politics” and “popularity” than public health.
Responding to the comments, Conservative Leader Antony Mullen said:
“These are stupid and opportunistic comments.
“Graeme Miller is in no position to accuse others of playing politics. This is a Group Leader who admitted telling his Labour councillors that their only priority at present should be winning seats at the next local elections.
“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.
“To quote former MP Hilton Dawson on Labour’s handling of those failures: ‘this is the council crossing its collective fingers and hoping that children will not die’.
“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.”
Further Reading
Sunderland City Council 'failures' contributed to child harm
Baby died in Sunderland after multiple failures by social services, review finds
Sunderland child protection body apologises over death of girls
'We let them down' - Sunderland Council apologises over care of children in new report
