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I have read an email that , arguably the country's most senior Liberal Democrat councillor, has written to Nick Clegg dubbing two senior ministers "Laurel and Hardy".

Councillor Kemp is referring to two Conservative ministers - the Communities Secretary, Eric Pickles and the Housing Minister, Grant Shapps.

He asks the Deputy Prime Minister to rein them in.

The full text of the email is below.

He is furious because he believes the two ministers are not facing up to the impact of the spending cuts on local government.

Richard Kemp is not opposing the cuts which he believes are necessary to reduce the deficit. But he believes the two ministers are coming up with "gimmicks" rather than admitting the scale of the cuts to jobs and services.

"Their behaviour is a disgrace. Either they really do not know how serious the situation is ... or they are deliberately trying to distract attention from the problems that they have created."

Cllr Kemp leads the Liberal Democrat group in the and is a Liverpool councillor.

is facing an 8.9% cut in spending power next year.

However Nick Clegg does not appear to share these views. A spokesman for the Deputy Prime Minister said: "These are Mr Kemp's personal views and are not representative of Liberal Democrats in Government.

"The Coalition Government has, despite the financial mess Labour left us in, embarked on a radical shift of power away from central government to local government and communities."

And Grant Shapps does not appear particularly concerned either.

In a statement he said: "Mr Kemp will be rather embarrassed when he notices that on Monday his own council admitted its senior management was so bloated that it axed 48 posts saving the taxpayer £4.25 million.

"I don't think even Richard could deny that this move will protect plenty of frontline staff.

"Maybe Mr Kemp is rattled by our new level of transparency meaning that all councils will have to publish expenditure over £500 online, exposing the inner workings of town halls to public scrutiny for the first time.

"This was a tough but fair settlement ensuring the most vulnerable communities were protected.

"If councils share back office services, join forces to procure, cut out the crazy non-jobs and root out the wild over-spends then they can protect frontline services."

This political argument is at the heart of the government's spending strategy.

Liverpool and the rest of the country will find out next year whether the cuts will improve the efficiency of services or damage them.

From the Leader of the Liberal Democrats in Local Government
Rt Hon Nick Clegg,
Deputy Prime Minister,
Whitehall

By E-Mail

17th December 2010

Dear Nick,

Reining in Laurel and Hardy!

As you know we are meeting next Monday to look at a number of issues one of which is the Local Government Settlement.

As the Leader of the Party's councillors I have struggled over the past few days to both explain the need for deep cuts in spending caused by the horrendous level of central government borrowing and defend the spending position of local government as we seek to provide much needed services especially to the poorest members of the community.

We all know that cuts mean job losses. My own authority will have an 8.9% reduction in spending power next year. There is no way that this can be done without job losses. Some of those job losses will be saved by increased efficiency. But we are already the most efficient part of the public sector according to the Treasury and Mr. Cameron and there are limits on how much efficiency can be increased within our sector alone. The rest will come through reductions in levels of service.

Whilst trying to have a serious discussion on these desperate issues we have too frequently been diverted by two Ministers - Pickles and Shapps - who behave more like Laurel and Hardy than members of Her Majesty's Government. They continually put forward the idea that all the savings at this massively high level can be made by increased efficiency, cuts in a small number of salaries, raiding reserves that are not needed etc etc. In fact almost every day we get from them a new gimmick.

Their behaviour is a disgrace. Either they really do not know how serious the situation is that they have created by rushing to get brownie points by being the first to settle with the biggest front loading or they are deliberately trying to distract attention from the problems that they have created.

I realise that they are Tory Ministers and not ours and that your room to deal with them is therefore limited. But there continued behaviour is a distraction from the serious ways in which we can try and reduce expenditure through things like community budgeting and the development of social enterprises which will be on the agenda for our discussion.

Regards,
Richard Kemp

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