Row erupts over council leader's trip to South of France at same time as Council Tax hike announced

Lib Dem councillor Stephen O’Brien has slammed Labour’s Cllr Mordey for spending £1,052.95 of Council Taxpayers’ money at the same time as raising Council tax for people living in the city.

However Cllr Mordey has strongly defended the outlay on travel and accommodation when he attended the real estate networking conference in February 2025 as an opportunity to bring further investment to the City.

Commenting on the trip, Cllr O’Brien, who was elected for the Sandhill Ward, said: “Staff from the Council and from the North East Combined Authority were already at the ‘networking event’ so there is no need for Labour politicians to shamefully take advantage of taxpayers’ cash to pay for travel and accommodation just so they have an excuse for a fancy trip to the south of France.

“As bills have been hitting doormats in the last few days people across the city have been shocked to see just how much more they are having to pay in Council Tax this year.

“It is an absolute insult to hard working people that the extra Council Tax they are paying is being spaffed up the wall not only on pay rises for councillors but also for jollies to Cannes for the Leader of the Council.”

However Cllr Mordey responded: "It's quite astonishing that – almost a month on from a well-publicised business trip to MIPIM ( Le Marché International des Professionnels de l'Immobilier), Councillor O’Brien has suddenly emerged with feigned outrage that the leader of the council should lead an inward investment effort on behalf of the city.

“As a city we have been incredibly successful in securing private sector investment in recent years. Hundreds of millions of pounds have been secured by proactively seeking partnerships with the private sector, that is transforming our city with once in a generation regeneration projects such as Riverside Sunderland, bringing new jobs and new industries to Sunderland.

Cllr Mordey also highlighted the attendance at the event by council leaders from other North East local authorities.

He added: “Is it really the position of the local Lib Dems that Sunderland should have stayed at home while the leaders of Newcastle and Gateshead – as well as other leaders from across the UK - actively promoted their areas to the global investment community?

“Now more than ever, I think it is vitally important that our city is in the room. Now is not the time to retreat, now is the time to push ahead as we move forward with the next phase of our regeneration programme.

“As Leader of the Council, I will always do everything in my power to actively seek out investment for our city and to keep us on our journey to securing new investment and new jobs for the people of Sunderland.