Former Northamptonshire County Council leader launches attack on MPs and fellow councillors in new interview

A councillor who today resigned from the Northamptonshire County Council Conservative group has launched an attack on seven members of Parliament and many of her fellow councillors in an interview with the Local Government Chronicle.
Cllr Heather SmithCllr Heather Smith
Cllr Heather Smith

Former leader Cllr Heather Smith, who quit her party this lunchtime on social media, gave the interview prior to her announcement.

In the article written by reporter Robert Cusack, she says that she had been made a “scapegoat” for the county council’s financial difficulties and was “so angry” about the way it had all been handled.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Cllr Smith served as leader between May 2016 and March 2018 before resigning on the day the heavily critical Max Caller report into the council’s financial irregularities was released.

In the interview, which contained a number of reported profanities, she said former chief executive Paul Blantern had lost his job because he tried something different and that a number of MPs would lose out in the general election because “they had done nothing to support Northamptonshire”.

She said she resigning from the Conservative group and would tell them “I can’t work with you lot” and said they did not have a “b****y clue” how difficult it had been. Cllr Smith was particularly critical of some of the newer members of the council.