Cornwall Council first meeting - Rob Parsonage - video Dailymotion

Reform UK's Rob Parsonage on his party's stance following its first Cornwall Council meeting as the new opposition

Transcript

00:00So here we are Rob, first meeting as Leader of Reform. How did it go for you and why,

00:07I have to ask, did Reform tend to abstain or not vote on most of the votes today?

00:13Well we are new here and what a theatre it is as well. So did we expect to have 28 in the

00:22chamber? Possibly not but it is a testament to the 47,000 people that voted for us and voted for

00:31change. Abstaining on many of the votes were new, we don't know the people, we have to get to know

00:41the people and I think that was the appropriate way forward on those occasions where we did abstain.

00:50So are you prepared to work with the Lib Dems and the independent group going ahead then?

00:55Our job as the opposition is to hold the administration to account. If they do identify

01:03areas of efficiency to move things forward then yes we would support them because that would be the

01:11right thing to do for Cornwall. Where things do not move rapidly enough we will challenge and we will

01:20push to move things more rapidly so that the efficiencies that are needed to sort out this

01:26massive debt put together by both the Liberal Democrats and Independents over eight years

01:33and the Conservatives over four years needs to be addressed. So what I got today from the meeting

01:39from Reform is that you want to run the council more like a business really?

01:42It is a business as well. There are all these arm's length companies kept at distance and we need

01:53to move them forward and move them out of this continual spiral of debt that they're in. That can only be

02:02done if you know how to run a business and that's what we will bring to the chamber and to formal council.

02:09Are you starting as you mean to go on by challenging process which we saw in today's meeting as well?

02:15Where the process needs challenging, yes we will. If you take this code of conduct

02:23it's more about weaponising the code of conduct. If you check the wording there it is there to identify

02:33D&I and net zero two reforms key policies. It's no surprise that those have been added to this item

02:43that is now passed so the council now is in the position of putting the party against

02:54Cornwall council and Cornwall council against the party. That cannot be right.