THE Lib Dem leader of Somerset Council – who is battling kidney cancer – has lambasted his Conservative Party colleagues over the words of a county MP who called the administration a “cancer”.

In November last year, MP Marcus Fysh (Con, Yeovil) wrote a column for a local newspaper which branded the “incompetence” of leaders at Somerset Council “a cancer the Lib Dems have spread to the wider scale”.

It came after the authority declared a financial emergency amid a £100 million funding shortfall it has blamed on spiralling social care costs and other factors.

Today (February 20), during the debate over the 2024/25 Somerset Council budget, leader Bill Revans (Lib Dem, North Petherton) slammed Mr Fysh’s words in response to remarks by Conservative group leader David Fothergill (Monkton & North Curry).

Cllr Fothergill said: “I woke the other morning from a quite terrifying nightmare. In it, I dreamed a rather proud, rather sustainable council that had been handed over with five years of balanced budgets and growing reserves, had been completely wrecked within two years.

“So, in this horrific nightmare, the people who wrecked this council had done so by a catalogue of failures; Failures to listen, failures to involve, failures to focus on issues, failure to take decisive actions early and most importantly, failure to remember who we are here to serve.

“Then I actually woke up and it was not a nightmare at all. It was actually happening, here in Somerset.”

He said the Lib Dem administration had failed to take action over the budget shortfall months ago.

“How utterly farcical that council emails, that are still going out today, still trumpet a flourishing and resilient Somerset and a fairer Somerset, when this budget paints a very different picture,” Cllr Fothergill went on.

He said proposed job cuts at the council amounted to up to 1,500 “individual tragedies in this story”.

“And more, every one of those 1,500 people do a job now,” he said. “They do a valuable job, they are valued members of our council.

“But it means those jobs will no longer be done, it means those services will no longer be provided, as those people will no longer be there.”

He said the administration had attempted to blame “every problem, from Brexit to Covid” for the problems.

“It’s about time the administration took responsibility for where they’ve led us to – the mediocrity that has led us to this point,” Cllr Fothergill added.

Yeovil MP Marcus Fysh doubled down on the comments on X (formerly Twitter)

However, in response, Cllr Revans read an email sent to him by Cllr Fothergill in March last year, which said: “I wanted to drop you a note to thank you for all the work you’ve done to deliver the unitary council, staying true to both the business case and the vision.

“Sadly, it can be seen as a weakness,” Cllr Revans read. “I really appreciate what you’ve been through to deliver the new council. I’m genuinely excited about the opportunities ahead.”

Cllr Revans said the email said “the opposite of what (Cllr Fothergill) was saying a moment ago”.

He went on to say: “This wasn’t due to a single policy decision, or mistake. This was simply because we had a spiralling cost of social care and we didn’t have the ability to raise income to meet that.

“It explaining what is going on is shifting the blame, well, that’s very, very sad about British politics.

“If you cannot explain something without being told you’re playing the blame game, that is a very sad state of affairs to be in.”

He added: “To suggest we have not responded is totally, totally false. We have engaged as much as we are able with our members of parliament.

“Sarah Dyke (Lib Dem, Somerton and Frome) has been brilliant in advocating for us in Parliament.”

He also thanked Tory MP Ian Liddell-Grainger (Con, Bridgwater & West Somerset) for his support, along with James Heappey (Con, Wells) and Rebecca Pow (Con, Taunton Deane).

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Then his remarks turned to Mr Fysh.

“Colleagues might notice there’s one name missing,” he said. “Back in November, the MP for Yeovil wrote that this administration is a cancer on Somerset, in his column in the Western Gazette.

“A cancer on Somerset. When he was pushed back – you do know the leader’s battling cancer – he doubled down on that insult.

“I’d like to thank every conservative who has pushed back on that. Oh no, no Conservative has pushed back.

“That was absolutely disgraceful to personalise politics in that way.

“You can shake your head, but when he’s part of your team, you either disown him, or you back him.

“So, we are in this situation, not of our choosing, not of our making, but it’s absolutely our responsibility to address it.”

He added: “The obvious solution would have been to allow us to raise council tax above the cap (4.99%). The government offered that. We have a low council tax base and low council tax rate.

“A 10% rise would have still left us below the unitary average. If only we had the council tax of Dorset, then maybe we would not be in this situation.

“Why do we not have the council tax of Dorset? Because it was frozen. Frozen for six years.

“In the face of rising costs, in the face of rising demand, we were told the right thing to do was freeze council tax for six years.

“That is the legacy of 13 years of the Conservative administration of Somerset County Council.

“We have no option but to take these difficult measures.

“The only other way is to declare section 114, commissioners will come in and even harder and even more difficult decisions will be before us before too long.”

Dave Mansell (Green Party, Upper Tone)

Previously, Cllr David Mansell (Green Party, Upper Tone) also reacted to the remarks by Cllr Fothergill.

He said: “I have just been dreaming as well. I don’t recognise what we’ve just heard. That is not what’s going on at this council.”

He said the creation of the unitary authority came at “the worst possible time”, but was backed by the central government and the previous Conservative administration.

“I think it is really clear that there’s a number of factors behind this, but it is the government that has caused most of this, and there are many other councils suffering in the same way,” Cllr Mansell said.

“We are really unlucky and unfortunate to be at the beginning of that wave.

“Those of us who care about Somerset and the public services deserved here can see it is years of austerity and years of underfunding local government, and if people cannot see that, dear oh dear.”

He added: “Overall, the government has put this council in an impossible position. I don’t know how, but we should not accept the harm this will cause to Somerset’s public services.”

The debate is continuing.