"Blame the Government, not the pensioners" says Lib Dem leader

6.54.23pm BST (GMT +0100) Sat 6th Sep 2008

Opposition leader on Oxford City Council, Cllr David Rundle, has accused the Labour administration and Andrew Smith MP of blaming bus-using pensioners for causing excessively high costs to the council. Cllr Rundle says that they should instead be standing up to Gordon Brown and the Labour government.

Lib Dems in Oxford have long called for a nationwide concessionary bus scheme for pensioners - years before Labour became converts to the cause. The Lib Dems say that the present scheme was announced to make the government sound generous, but in fact it will end up having to be paid for through the council tax.

Cllr Rundle said: "Gordon Brown has done his usual trick of announcing 'good news' but refusing to pay for it. It's another Labour botched job. And instead of standing up for Mr Brown, Labour locally should be standing up to him. What this shows is that the City Council and Oxford East's Labour MP haven't got the guts to do that. Instead, Labour locally have shown they're more than happy to hike the grossly unfair council tax."

Cllr Rundle added: "If you think Oxford's Council Tax levels are unfairly high now, just wait till Labour have raised it further to pay for this fiasco and save their government's blushes."