What Michael Gove Said About Local Councils Left Emily Thornberry Riled

5 May 2017, 05:04 | Updated: 5 May 2017, 05:19

Labour's Emily Thornberry clashed with the Tories' Michael Gove on LBC's Election Special.

On Iain Dale and Shelagh Fogarty's Local Election Special, Conservative politician Michael Gove wanted to relay the importance of local authorities.  

He said that while he was canvassing somewhere in England and people were complaining about local council issues.

Michael said: "The first thing that people mentioned, even though the general election is looming, were the state of roads, or how we were going to pay for social care, or educational funding and what its future may be. All responsibilities of the county council."

That's when Emily Thornberry, Labour's Shadow Defence Secretary, interjected. 

She said: "Oh wait a minute, no it isn't! All you've done, all the Conservatives have done, is when you talk about devolution, you just devolve responsibility.

 "But actually, you hold onto the perstrings. So local authorities are getting cut...which means it's really difficult for them to pay for social care.  

"And as for school funding, the fact is that, you know, national government gives the money back to local authorities to pay for school funding and directly to schools for school funding, then local people take the can when people turn around and say 'why is it we have less funding for schools? 

"That's what they complain about. Poor local councils are doing their absolute upmost to try and get a quart out of a pint pot and it's impossible because the national government is pressing austerity on local authorities in a way that's almost impossible for them to cope with."