At yesterday’s Full Council meeting a motion was tabled by Labour Leader of the Council, Cllr Shanker, to award Dame Margaret Beckett the Freedom of the City of Derby in recognition of her 40 years as the Member of Parliament for Derby South.

The motion, itself, approves the establishment of a future Special Meeting where the vote is taken. This then requires a two-thirds majority to pass.

There was an expectation that this would be uncontroversial and would pass without much debate. Recent, similar votes, have been passed for Wayne Rooney and Sandy Ryan, albeit they have not reached the Special Meeting stage. It’s understood that the Tory advocacy for Wayne Rooney has lapsed given his departure from Derby County.

Cllr Hassall ( Leader of the Tory Group) stated in his speech that whilst he accepted Dame Margaret’s long service, he felt that the Freedom of the City should be bestowed only on “members of the City”, i.e. members of the public, and not politicians. He was concerned about setting a precedent with politicians handing out awards to other politicians.

Cllr Care ( Liberal Democrats) also stated her view that Dame Margaret was a good person with an enormous amount of respect. Her opposition was based on the fact that 40 years is “just a number… and not a headline thing” and that she is “still doing a job”. Cllr Care also expressed her concern that the Labour group had not sought agreement for the Lib Dem support outside of the meeting; she ended by saying that she would consider supporting the motion when Dame Margaret had retired as an MP.

Cllr Roulstone (Tory) paid tribute to Dame Margaret as being her inspiration for entering politics but felt that she was “doing her job” and that she was “paid to do it”

Cllr Lindsey (Reform) delved into history and reflected back on the Troubles in Northern Ireland, the IRA, the Iraq War and ended by asking what Dame Margaret had done for veterans.

Comment

All Cllrs have a right to their opinion.

Cllr Hassall tabled the motion to award Wayne Rooney, the “hear today, gone tomorrow” manager of Derby County, the Freedom of the City. This fell through as Rooney’s commitment to Derby was entirely financial and he left soon after relegation. His contribution was nowhere near exceptional, nor valued.

The view that politicians shouldn’t make awards to other politicians has some philosophical merit. Needless to say it is commonplace at a national level with many dubious honours being given to cronies; those are granted by the leader of the ruling party. The Freedom of the City requires a two-thirds majority which would, in Derby, require cross party support and mitigate party political cronyism.

Cllr Care/ Roulstone’s position that Dame Margaret was doing a paid job is inconsistent with their perspective on Wayne Rooney – he was paid handsomely for doing a simple job helping very few people.

Cllr Lindsey’s contribution was quite bizarre and played to the stereotypical view of a Reform Cllr. He started by referring to the retirement speech given by Cllr Fareed Khan (sic) earlier in the year – he meant Cllr Fareed Hussain!

There were 5 absences from the Chamber. Had they been present, and voted in line with their colleagues, then the motion would have failed. Due to 4 abstensions and Labour having 50% of the attendees then the motion was carried.

It is unlikely that the vote will be successful when it comes to the Special Meeting.

The newly elected Cllr Onuoha (Labour) expressed his opinion that:

“whilst we do sit on different parts of this political bench I do feel that this vote shouldn’t be about the person but more about the City – the City of Derby that is proud of making history…we are mature enough to put politics aside and that is what this motion is about”

The debate around the motion was spurious and undignified for the City…unfortunately most Cllrs weren’t “mature enough”

Motion transcript

Notice of motion: Freedom of the City of Derby

Moved by Councillor Shanker, seconded by Councillor Peatfield:

Council recognises the contribution of Dame Margaret Beckett to the City
of Derby, having served as the Member of Parliament for the Derby South
constituency for more than 40 years.

During that time Dame Margaret has served her constituents with
diligence and tenacity, championing Derby’s manufacturing industries on
the national stage and steadfastly maintaining her commitment to hosting
regular advice surgeries for the people of our city.

In her long and distinguished Parliamentary career, Dame Margaret has
served as a Minister in four Labour Governments and in 1994 became the
first woman to lead the Labour Party. In 2006, she was appointed as the
first female Foreign Secretary and only the second woman to hold one of
the Great Offices of State. Council thanks Dame Margaret for her service
to the nation and is proud of her record as a trailblazer for women’s
representation.

Council notes Dame Margaret’s intention to stand down from Parliament
at the next General Election and wishes her a long and healthy
retirement. In recognition of her contribution to Derby and to the United
Kingdom, Council resolves to award Freedom of the City to the Rt Hon
Dame Margaret Beckett MP at a specially convened meeting, to be
arranged in due course