Muslim Councillors Create Roles for Cronies

From the Mail:

It's the sort of wage you'd normally associate with a Premiership footballer or a City trader - £800 for a minute's work.

But the amazing sum is paid with taxpayers' money to council meeting chairmen at Tower Hamlets in East London.

All councillors get an allowance of £9,698, but committee chairmen get an additional £8,069.

However, Tory councillor Phil Briscoe believed the Labour authority had created extra roles for a group of 'cronies'.

He asked for a breakdown of how long each committee leader had led meetings in the last municipal year.

Labour councillor Salim Ullah managed just ten minutes with the appeals committee, which works out at £807 a minute.

Labour's Mohammed Shahid Ali spent 91 minutes on the general purposes committee, making £5,320 an hour or £88 a minute.

Councillor Briscoe said: 'It is hard to imagine any politician in Westminster could clock up allowances at such a rate.'

Councillor Ullah refused to comment but Councillor Ali said: 'The time spent actually in committee is a very small part of the work of a committee chair.'

The council said: 'Allowances for nearly all chairs are significantly below recommended amounts.'