Lib Dems Call for Meeting on Labour’s Astrazeneca fiasco

Liverpool Lib Dem Leader Carl Cashman has called for an extraordinary meeting of the council to discuss the failed Liverpool AstraZeneca deal. 

After Astrazeneca pulled out of their planned expansion of their vaccine manufacturing plant in Speke citing Labour’s decision to change the terms of the deal that had been previously struck, Cllr Carl Cashman wrote to the Metro Mayor and Leader of the Council asking how they’d allowed that to happen and urging cross party action on it.

In that letter, Cllr Cashman committed to holding an extraordinary meeting of the council so that all members had a chance to discuss the issue. The decision to pull out of the investment Speke will have a huge knock on effect on the area as it was meant to bring in 100s of new well-paying jobs.

The Lib Dems have had it confirmed to them that the meeting will be held on the same day as the next full council meeting when the budget is due to be discussed. The Lib Dem motion highlights the failure of the Metro Mayor to be in the room fighting Liverpool's corner in the negotiations between Astrazeneca and the Government.

Their motion calls for arrangements to be made for a cross-party delegation to be made to meet with Ministers and bosses at Astrazeneca to save the deal and for the council to establish a task force of business leaders in the City to find the best way to advocate for more inward investment into Liverpool.

On Feb 6th, Former Leader of the Council and Lib Dem Peer, Lord Mike Storey, asked in the House of Lords whether the Metro Mayor had been involved in the negotiations after Rotheram publicly stated he hadn't been involved after the announcement by Astrazeneca. He also used it as an opportunity to point out how Labour have favoured London and the South East.  

Leader of the Opposition, Cllr Carl Cashman, said:

“Liverpool needs people at the top who are relentless advocates for the city and who won’t just be batted away and take the party line. Be under no illusions, Robinson and Rotheram got their marching orders from Labour HQ - keep quiet, don’t rock the boat on this one. That’s appalling, I will always put Liverpool first. My city comes before my party. 

“It speaks volumes that so far into this Labour government the dying days of the last Tory government offered more on this deal to Liverpool than Labour would - they are far more concerned with pumping more money into projects in London and the South East. Labour seem to only care about Liverpool one time a year - when they rock up for their conference.”

“I want to work with the Metro Mayor and the Leader of the Council on this for the betterment of the city. We should all be working towards putting Liverpool first and getting us to the top of the league where we belong.”