Labour councillor ousted over Hull budget vote

A Labour councillor who voted against his own party over budget cuts facing Hull City Council has been removed as chairman of a city committee.
Labour councillors voted to oust Councillor Gary Wareing as chairman of the Riverside Area Committee after he voted against the ruling Labour group over its plans for cutting services and staff.
The vote of no confidence to remove Cllr Wareing as Chair was moved by Cllr Colin Inglis and was supported by all Labour councillors present except Cllr Wareing and Newington Ward Councillor Alan Clark, who abstained.
Opposition councillors from the Lib Dems have seized on the development to hint at splits within Labour ranks over how the ruling group tackles the biggest cut in funding from Central Government in decades. Lib Dem opposition leader Cllr Abigail Bell said: "While the "do nothing and hope it all goes away" option that Cllr Wareing is calling for is clearly not a sensible way forward, he has hit the nail on the head in one sense. "He and thirty-odd other Labour councillors were elected on a "no cuts, no job losses" platform. Now they're in charge and they're doing exactly what they promised not to do."