The Shadow Cabinet Member for Finance on Birmingham City Council has claimed that the city's ongoing bin crisis is "entirely attributable" to the "dreadful Labour administration", as residents are now living among more than 20,000 tonnes of waste.
Speaking to GB News, Councillor Meirion Jenkins suggested that the £760million debt at the heart of the city’s bin strikes could be growing by up to £14million each month.
The crisis has become so severe that crews from neighbouring councils have been brought in to collect waste.
Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner has also called in the British Army to assist with the crisis, with some being assigned to provide temporary "logistical support".
Councillor Meirion Jenkins has hit out at Labour's handling of Birmingham's bin crisis
GB News
Hitting out at Birmingham's Labour administration, Jenkins said: "It's a dreadful situation. There were 21,000 tons of rubbish left on the streets, although the council claims that some of this is being collected by crews that are being brought in from neighbouring councils.
"It's entirely attributable to the dreadful Labour administration that we have in Birmingham."
Recalling a previous bin strike in 2017, Jenkins revealed that to resolve that dispute, the Labour administration introduced an intermediary grade for bin workers, which Conservative councillors warned at the time this would trigger equal pay issues.
"At the time, we said that this will cause an equal pay dispute in due course, and sure enough roll forward eight years we have professionally estimated liability for equal pay of £760million," Jenkins stated.
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Some 21,000 tons of waste now lines the second city's streets
GETTY"The problem dates right back to legislation from the Blair era, which meant that you could compare workers who were doing quite different jobs," Jenkins said.
The council was supposed to implement a proper grading scheme by March 2025 to address the equal pay liability.
"They need to implement a proper grading scheme, which they were supposed to do by March 25," Jenkins told GB News.
The financial consequences of missing this deadline are severe: "For every month that we go past March 2025 that's £760million equal pay liability has been calculated to be growing up to £14million a month," he warned.
The current bin strikes are directly linked to the council's attempts to finally address the equal pay issue.
"The bin men [are] on strike because the council, in order to remove the equal pay liability, are having to take away that intermediary grade three that they should never have given them in 2017," Jenkins explained.
Jenkins told GB News that it is a 'dreadful situation'
GB News
Jenkins has criticised the suggestion of bringing in the Army to address the waste crisis: "Collecting rubbish from the streets is not the Army's sweet spot and we think it's just a gesture from the government and the Labour council to try and look serious," he said.
The Shadow Cabinet Member believes there are more effective solutions available: "If they want to fix it, then they have to sort of adopt the plan that we had offered to Labour," Jenkins stated.
He expressed frustration that Labour had "turned down an emergency debate that we asked for on this bin strike, because of the impact it's having on the health of the city."
Jenkins insisted alternative approaches exist that could improve the situation.
"There are things that could be done, short of bringing in the army to collect rubbish, that would significantly improve the situation," he concluded.
