Editorial

Lynne Hillan the first female to lead Barnet council, the Conservative flagship authority, has survived, with strong bacing by her own Conservative group a vote of no confidence tabled by the Liberal Democrats.  In a "low key debate" with no raised voices, the Conservative group confidently dealt with the Barnet Liberal Democrats attempts to destablise the Hillan administration.

All thirty nine Conservative councillors backed Lynne Hillan, defeating the vote of no confidence, which surprised many given the ongoing feuds amongst the Barnet Conservative’s spilling over in blogs and local newspapers.  It is not clear what deals have been made for Cllr Lynne Hillan to remain as leader, but one thing is evident the revolt by newly selected Conservative councillors against Hillan has been roundly defeated.

With deep cuts anticipated to commence in Barnet, the damaging councillor allowances issue which saw an overall cut to cabinet members pay, resulted in uproar by Conservative councillors, who ironically on the whole voted for the pay rise, but used this as an issue of principle and started briefing against Cllr Lynne Hillan and her supporters.   

Senior Barnet Conservatives and supporters of Councillor Lynne Hillan are now throwing an olive branch to opponents of her administration, with one senior aide to Cllr Hillan saying:

"We want to be unified as a group and fight for the Conservatives to retain their seats on the GLA and City Hall; any more dissent will result in the whip being withdrawn from members of the group and their deselection, we have no other choice.  We have a tough time with the cuts we need to implement, and we must be united and focus on the work we have been selected to do and not constantly trying to quell unrest in our ranks."