LIB DEM politician Richard Kemp today attacked Liverpool City Council for appointing a former Labour Party special adviser as its latest media minder.
Cllr Kemp says the council should have spent more time seeking an independent professional as its head of communications, a post unfilled since its last incumbent, Louise Douglas, walked out last summer.
Kevin Meagher, currently a freelance consultant, worked as special advisor to St Helens Labour MP Shaun Woodward during his time as Northern Ireland Secretary.
Cllr Kemp said: "Given the problems that we have had with people in these appointments in the past it should have been absolutely clear that we needed an independent professional with no links to any political party.
“Instead inside an administration that is manifestly strongly Labour we have a new council mouthpiece from the same background. We appreciate that it has taken more than seven months to find a replacement for the last person who gave up the job after just 10 months but I cannot believe that it was impossible to find someone who the whole city could rely on to be independent and professional. This is just another reason that we ought to work together to break the tight grip that Labour has on this city."
Despite still having one of the lowest turn-outs in the country, the predictions are that in May’s local elections – on the same day as the general election – Labour will tighten its grip in Liverpool by adding to its current tally of 78 of the 90 seats.
Last year Mr Meagher called for compulsory voting, and said everyone should be made to take part in elections or face a fine.
As well as working for Shaun Woodward, Mr Meagher, who is 39, has worked for other large local authorities including Birmingham, Cheshire East and Hyndburn in East Lancashire.
Speaking of his new role in Liverpool, which is an initial six-month contract, he says: “It’s a great opportunity to work for the city at an exciting time. Liverpool is leading the way nationally and internationally, both with its regeneration projects and with its ground-breaking cultural plans.
Strained
“We need to be ambitious and tell the rest of the country and the wider world about what’s going on here. That’s what I’ve been asked to help with and that’s what I’ll be getting on with doing.”
The appointment comes at a time when relationships between Mayor Anderson and a number of Labour leaders on Merseyside are strained, not least over the question of whether a metro mayor should be elected as head of “Liverpool City Region”.
Disagreements over which way the city region should move forward have led to angry exchanges between Mayor Anderson and Cllr Phil Davies, leader of Wirral Council who is also chairman of the City Region Combined Authority,a a super-cabinet made up of the leaders of the six city region councils.
Whether Meagher, with his experience as a lobbyist and marketer in Northern Ireland, can act as a peace-broker in Liverpool remains to be seen.
“My role as head of communications isn’t about spinning a yarn. It’s about jobs, investment and tourism - helping the city tell its story in the most joined-up way possible in order to promote Liverpool to the outside world - to potential investors and visitors, government and beyond,” adds Liverpool’s latest spin doctor.
The ace of SpAds
Malcolm TuckerSpecial Advisors or SpAds as they are known in political circles, have generated criticisms in recent years. Famous figures include Alastair Campbell and the the Prime Minister's disgraced former media aid Andy Coulson. They have even been satirised, most notably the television series The Thick of It, which starred the current Doctor Who, Peter Capaldi as foulmouthed spin doctor Malcolm Tucker.
As one article in the Daily Telegraph described SpAds: “They are among the most shadowy figures in government. They sit at the right hand of Cabinet ministers and some wield more influence than the most senior civil servants, yet their names are rarely known outside Whitehall. They are unelected and unaccountable to either the public or Parliament.
“They are the chosen few, though how they come to be chosen is something of a mystery. Their privileged positions are never advertised, but increasingly the posts they hold lead to the very top of politics.”
Away from Westminster, Liverpool had not been without its own colourful episodes in the world of media communications.
In 2006, the council's head of communcications, Matt Finnegan, quit the role after an 18 month suspension over "procurement irregularities".
In his resignation letter Finnegan, one of the North West's best known political lobbyists, accused the then Lib Dem authority of pursuing an "astonishing vendetta" against him.
