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‘What a bag of hot air’: Council Zoom meeting descends into chaos

With the jury still out on whether Jackie Weaver has the authority in Handforth, a fresh council meeting descended into chaos as members bickered over issues such as litter enforcement and council tax.

Members on Hull’s Full Council saw tensions boil over in a tense video call, with shouts of ‘what a bag of hot air’ and ‘how dare you?’ heard.

BBC journalist David Harrison, who shared a clip on Twitter, wrote: “Hull’s Full Council meeting has just gone full Handforth Parish Council….”

Hull Live reports there was bad blood after one councillor reported two others to the police for allegedly failing to social distance in a photo.

Cllr Phil Webster, Labour, defended reporting two Lib Dems, before telling one of them to “shut up”.

Cllr Webster then told Cllr Cheryl Payne: “Don’t you wave your finger try paying your council tax for once.”

Shouts of “how dare you”, “I object to this very strongly” and “what a bag of hot air” followed.

Cllr Webster then said in response to Cllr Chris Randall: “You’re shouting at us, there’s a new one, try shouting at your wife for once.”

Cllr Webster then continued saying: “I’m sat here, they’re shouting abuse and I’ve given it back because if you live in glass houses you shouldn’t throw stones, we’ll hold them to account, everything they do is one lie after another.”

It got out of hand when Labour councillors disputed claims 75 to 80 per cent of enforcement teams’ time was spent in the city centre.

They quoted figures stating 57 per cent of fixed penalty notices for littering were issued outside the city centre.

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Jack Peat

Jack is a business and economics journalist and the founder of The London Economic (TLE). He has contributed articles to VICE, Huffington Post and Independent and is a published author. Jack read History at the University of Wales, Bangor and has a Masters in Journalism from the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

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