St Helens Council's deputy leader apologises for 'offensive' comments

At the last full council meeting on Wednesday, March 6, comments made by the deputy leader of St Helens Council, Cllr Seve Gomez-Aspron, were reported to the council's Monitoring Officer.

After Newton-le-Willows West independent councillor, Terry Maguire, explained that he and Cllr Karl Collier would be voting against the proposed council tax rise of 4.99 percent, Cllr Gomez-Aspron described his reasoning as "diatribe" and said he has "not a clue what he is talking about".

Despite being cautioned for his language in the meeting, where he also described the two independent councillors as the "Earlestown Brain Trust", Cllr Gomez-Aspron later said that "it was wrong to imply there was a brain".

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Complaint upheld by the council

The deputy leader was made to apologise for his remarks (Image: Cllr Seve Gomez-Aspron)
After the Newton-le-Willows East councillor's comments were reported to the council's Monitoring Officer, who deals with complaints regarding the code of conduct of councillors, St Helens Council has confirmed to the Star that the complaint was accepted and upheld, and resolved with an 'alternative resolution'.

According to Cllr Maguire, the Monitoring Officer said that the remarks were "personally offensive, inappropriate and disrespectful", and it is understood that Cllr Gomez-Aspron has sent a letter of apology to the two independent councillors.

Cllr Maguire, who was elected as an independent councillor in Newton-le-Willows West in 2021, said that he is grateful for the outcome and hopes it is a "turning point" in the behaviour of councillors.

Complaint seen as a 'turning point'

Newton-le-Willows West councillors, Terry Maguire and Karl Collier (Image: Cllr Terry Maguire)
With the complaint being upheld by St Helens Council, Cllr Maguire said: "After the last full council meeting, many [residents] messaged me and some posted in disbelief at the offensive comments which were used to describe Councillor Karl Collier and I during the publicly viewed meeting, by the deputy leader of St Helens Council.

"People couldn't believe that such demeaning language would be used during a meeting of such importance, when discussing an issue that affects finances of vulnerable people.

"We did complain to the monitoring officer about this and thankfully, on this occasion the complaint was accepted. The deputy leader's comments were deemed to be personally offensive, inappropriate and disrespectful to both of us.

"After it having been explained to him that this type of language isn't acceptable, the deputy leader has now seen the error of his ways and sent us a letter of apology for his comments.

"We are grateful for this outcome and see it as a turning point towards polite politics, [which is] what we aim for."

What was said?

Cllr Maguire spoke about his objections to the council tax rise (Image: St Helens Council)
At the meeting where elected councillors debated the council's budget, Cllr Maguire explained that after voting against the rise in councillor's allowances, he could not vote for the proposed tax rises for residents.

Cllr Maguire said: "The average person will never understand why the council can fund freebie trips abroad for their cabinet members and partners [to Stuttgart], give themselves a pay rise that equates to 10.5%, but then close essential services like libraries [and] have three weekly bin collections on their radar.

"Yet [they] want to charge the residents of this borough a maximum council tax increase of 4.99 percent, which is one percent above the current inflation rate, and inflation is scheduled to fall even further.

"I know we must balance budgets and this is a difficult task to do, and that is why we pay such good salaries to those who set them.

"I believe that the costs of services are almost to the bone, but we cannot keep passing this on to the people of our borough.

"Councillors have recently been given an unexpected £2million in their settlement towards their social care needs. Before this extra money, the council tax rise would have been 4.99 percent, and after the money it still at 4.99 percent.

"Should this extra money not have gone to reduce the burden on the residents of our borough?"

Cllr Maguire suggested that a "reset" regarding the funding of the social care system and agency staff could help to alleviate financial pressures on the council. 

He added: "After recently voting against the councillor's pay rise for members, I cannot consciously vote for such a hefty rise in council tax; a rise lower than the current rate of inflation of 4 percent would have been more appropriate."

Cllr Gomez said that the independent councillors did not offer a solution to the council tax rise (Image: St Helens Council)
In the council meeting, Cllr Gomez-Aspron responded: "I've never heard somebody speak so confidently on an issue that they have absolutely not a clue what they are talking about.

"We have an entire opposition that stands on an anti-growth agenda; they are against growth, against putting council tax up, against building, but they want to vote against this budget because they can't be bothered to propose one of their own.

"If you want to keep council tax the same, for every percent you don't put it up by, you have to find another million quid.

"So, they don't want to put council tax to be put up, but they won't tell us where they would cut every percent to find a million quid.

"It's the same old rubbish that we heard last year when they said we should use reserves to keep council tax down, but wouldn't tell us which schemes they would cut to get the reserve money from.

"It's easy to throw out half a sentence to try and sound popular, but all it shows is that you haven't got a clue what you're talking about."

He continued: "It makes me laugh when [Cllr Maguire] says things may be different in 2026. It won't, you still won't do your job then either and I imagine you won't educate yourself in the years in between.

"If the consistency is you won't know what you're on about in 2026, I'll put money on that as yes. We could probably bet the precept on it, and afford to fund all the services that we've lost in the meanwhile.

"Credit to the Lib Dems for recognising the issues of balancing a budget. God forbid the Earlestown Brains Trust of where we [would be] going with their proposals.

"If you are saying you will do something different, propose it."

He later added: "I'd like to apologise for foolishly referring to the Newton West councillors as the Earlestown Brains Trust. I apologise for that, it was wrong to imply there was a brain."

In a statement addressing the complaint, Cllr Gomez-Aspron said: “Councillor Maguire complained that he was grossly offended that I questioned whether their political group has a brain or not based on their suggestion that we should cut another £5m from the budget and from the most vulnerable families in the borough.

"This was challenged by a number of members in the room.

"He provided no explanation of where these cuts would come from and his total lack of understanding of the process made me question their cerebral capacity.

"Of course, when it became apparent he was so upset, then it was only right to put him at ease.

"He was corrected by the Council that 'brain trust' is a political term."

He added: "I will continue to call out the hypocrisy of these 'Independent' councillors on their fiscal policy as I have done previously.

"We are elected to challenge the opposition in this. Yet they seem to get very upset when we dare to do so."

Cllr Gomez-Aspron also noted that councillor Maguire's behaviour has previously been corrected by the council's monitoring officer and highlighted comments he had previously made about the travelling community.

In 2021, Cllr Maguire questioned whether the rights of the travelling groups “outweigh[ed] the rights of the ordinary people of this town” after caravans had encamped on a car park in Earlestown.

He later apologised and removed the post from social media.