{"id":430461,"date":"2026-02-17T13:34:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-17T13:34:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/430461\/"},"modified":"2026-02-17T13:34:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T13:34:07","slug":"betrayed-21-hartlepool-councillors-threaten-to-quit-labour-over-care-budget-county-durham","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/430461\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Betrayed\u2019: 21 Hartlepool councillors threaten to quit Labour over care budget | County Durham"},"content":{"rendered":"

Keir Starmer is facing a mass resignation of Labour councillors in one of England\u2019s poorest areas over a \u201cbetrayal\u201d of funding for children in care.<\/p>\n

Labour councillors in Hartlepool, County Durham<\/a>, said they were \u201cbetween despair and open revolt\u201d over an \u201cunfair\u201d cash settlement that would leave them unable to balance the books.<\/p>\n

Pamela Hargreaves, the Hartlepool council leader, told the Guardian that her group of 21 councillors, who are in overall control of the 36-member council, were considering quitting Labour<\/a> this week in protest.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe feel betrayed. We feel let down,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019ve worked really hard to get a Labour government and it had such promise and we expected so much more. You get left feeling how much more faith can we keep?\u201d<\/p>\n

Starmer is facing intense criticism over his decision on Monday to abandon plans to cancel local elections<\/a> in 30 areas of England spanning 4.5 million people.<\/p>\n

The prime minister was accused of overseeing another costly U-turn that would leave councils in disarray and expose Labour to further damaging results on polling day in May.<\/p>\n

Hargreaves said Hartlepool needed an extra \u00a33m to help fund its ballooning social care bill but that the government had refused. The town has the third-highest<\/a> number of children in care per capita in England.<\/p>\n

Steve Reed, the local government secretary, told the Commons last week that ministers were \u201crealigning\u201d funding so that poorer areas get a fairer share.<\/p>\n

However, local government leaders have said a \u201csignificant\u201d increase in funding is needed to stop more local authorities from going bankrupt after a huge increases in costs and cuts under the Conservative government.<\/p>\n

Hartlepool is the sixth most deprived council in England, according to official figures, and is expected to increase council tax by 4.99% \u2013 the maximum allowed without a local referendum \u2013 for 2026-27.<\/p>\n

The authority was won back by Labour two years ago from a Conservative-independent coalition but Nigel Farage\u2019s Reform UK is hoping for significant gains when a third of the council seats go up for re-election in May. Its precursor, the Brexit party, briefly led the authority in a coalition with the Conservatives in 2019-20.<\/p>\n

Keir Starmer speaking to local children in Hartlepool in 2023. Photograph: Ian Forsyth\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Jonathan Brash, the Labour MP for Hartlepool, said the government had offered a cash increase of \u00a33m but that this was \u201cthe equivalent of funding around six children in care\u201d.<\/p>\n

He told MPs last week that the government\u2019s funding settlement had left Labour councillors \u201cdistraught, despondent and profoundly worried\u201d and that services including libraries, youth provision and community hubs would be under threat.<\/p>\n

Hargreaves said she and fellow Labour councillors were considering resigning later this week unless the government agreed to help fund a \u00a36m overspend on its children\u2019s social care budget \u2013 which had risen partly as a result of other local authorities \u201cdumping\u201d families in Hartlepool.<\/p>\n

She said: \u201c\u00a33m is all I wanted and we could have balanced the books this year and what [the government] is saying is that the hard-working people of Hartlepool \u2013 who are already paying way too much council tax \u2013 should have to shoulder that.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s not the fairer funding we were promised and it\u2019s not the government that my Labour group of councillors fought to put in power.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hargreaves said it was particularly galling for Labour members who had helped win back Hartlepool in 2024 after the damaging 2021 byelection, when it was lost to the Conservatives in a defeat that prompted Starmer to consider resigning as party leader.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve stomped the streets, we\u2019ve put all the leaflets through, we carried the Labour message, we\u2019ve gone to the people and asked them to trust us and to believe in Labour again,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd now here we are again at the 11th hour with not enough money to fix the issues that are beyond our control.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked whether a mass resignation was likely, Hargreaves said: \u201cIf it comes to that, that is something that is definitely on the table for consideration because we\u2019re lost. Where do we go? Nobody seems to be listening.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government has been contacted for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Keir Starmer is facing a mass resignation of Labour councillors in one of England\u2019s poorest areas over a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":430462,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-430461","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-kingdom","8":"tag-gb","9":"tag-great-britain","10":"tag-greatbritain","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom","14":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430461","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=430461"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430461\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/430462"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=430461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=430461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=430461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}