Hartlepool MP Jill Mortimer hits back in row with Labour over town's council tax

It comes after Hartlepool Borough Council approved an overall 4.9% rise in council tax for 2023-24.

At last week’s decision-making meeting, Labour councillor and prospective Parliamentary candidate Jonathan Brash criticised MP Jill Mortimer for her apparent lack of action over the issue.

He claimed she has mentioned council tax and local authority funding “precisely zero times in Parliament”.

Nor has she sent a letter to Government ministers on the issue, he added.

Conservative MP Mrs Mortimer has responded by stressing she has “been actively investigating alternatives to the broken system of council tax” since her election and will continue to make her voice heard.

She added council tax in Hartlepool is “simply too high”, which she put down to the large number of lower band properties and deprivation in the town, along with the “persistent increases” during the years Labour controlled the council.

She said: “We cannot solve the issue of council tax overnight, nor through elaborate speeches or angry Facebook posts. This issue needs real, deep-rooted reform.

“This is not an issue I have avoided. The issue of council tax must be overhauled nationally.

“I have been speaking with colleagues about this important issue, meeting with stakeholders and making my views clear long before the proposal to increase council tax landed on the desks of Hartlepool councillors.”

She added she has “met on a number of occasions with people who are suggesting real solutions” – such as Andrew Dixon from Fairer Share.

Mrs Mortimer had submitted her apologies after she was unable to accept invitations to council committee meetings where budget discussions were being held.

This was due to having to be in London to be in Parliament while she added “it is not my place” to be attending council meetings.

She stressed she continues to regularly meet with council leaders and officers to discuss important issues.

Speaking at the latest full council meeting Cllr Brash, deputy leader of the Labour group, said the budget proposals were a symptom of “13 years of Conservative Party failure”, adding: “It is failure on an unbelievable scale, it’s the Government in Westminster that are causing such damage to our town.”

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