Yesterday what we expected to happen did happen i.e. the Tories on Sefton’s Cabinet backed Labour in their grubby bid to gain an extra seat on Merseyside Integrated Transport Authority (Merseytravel). Of course Sefton Tories have form here in that they have a history of backing Labour when it comes to Merseytravel.

But now may well be the time for a bit of history to be revealed which shines some light on the potential motives for Labour’s power grabbing.

Ever since it became clear that Merseytram was on the rocks there have been serious concerns about Merseytravel who promoted the failed tram project which, we are told, cost £70m of public money. Those concerns were, I understand, held by senior councillors and council officers across the County and I include Halton here as the adopted Merseyside Council from Cheshire.

Let me be frank, it was very clear to me that soeme in the Labour Party wanted to clip the wings of Mark Dowd the Labour Chair of Merseytravel indeed some Labour people made it clear to me that they felt it was time for him to go. This concern manifested itself in the City Region Cabinet setting up a Transport Portfolio which, as you may guess, went down like a lead balloon with Merseytravel! Relationships between the City Region Cabinet and Merseytravel have been strained ever since and that is being polite about it. I have been at meetings where you could cut the atmosphere with a knife.

Let me suggest a possible explanation for the Labour Party’s behaviour and the likely connection between it and recent history. It is all to do with political power in my book and the need to ensure that another Dowd loyalist is placed on Merseytravel so that when the challenge comes to unseat Mark Dowd it can more easily been seen off. Strangely, as Labour has gained a large majority on Merseytravel their Chairman has seemingly become more vulnerable from his own Labour Party benches. In fact he was probably more secure when he was being propped up by the Tories in the days when Labour was not the largest Party on the Authority (and the Lib Dems were) but the Tories kept Labour in power.

The need to act must have been urgent as events show that on 9th May 2011 the Labour Leader on Sefton backed (as did I and the Tory Leader) what we call the Political Conventions document which all 3 party leaders had originally signed up to on 29th March 2010. This document had within it the methodology for allocating seats on Merseyside’s ‘Joint Boards’. The other two Joint Boards for these purposes being the Fire Authority and Waste Disposal Authority. Yet only a few days later on 17th May and out of the blue Labour did a u-turn and said they wanted to back out of what they had just agreed to. Clearly, things were moving and it is my belief that it had become apparent to Labour people who support Mark Dowd that others within the Labour Party had the knives out for him again. Such was the concern that Sefton Labour found itself having to back out of what it had just agreed to but fortunately for them the Tories were willing to lend a hand.

And there you have what I think were the causes of the row at Sefton’s Cabinet yesterday. Are things starting to fall apart already with Labour leading a 3 party Cabinet? Well yes it seems that they are and frankly we Lib Dems will not be putting up with any more power grabbing. If the Tories do want to try another coalition with Labour as they did in 2008 then they should just get on with it. Yes, they failed spectacularly then as the Lab/Con coalition lasted less than 2 months but we Lib Dems are more than happy to provide the opposition on Sefton Council should they want another stab at it.