THE COALITION in charge of Blackburn with Darwen Council has come under fire following this week’s emergency budget.

Last night Labour forced through a motion condemning ‘the unfair distribution’ of budget cuts after an hour-long debate.

The town hall is run by a Tory-Lib Dem partnership, the same combination that this week put forward plans to slash 25 per cent from each government department as part of its drastic deficit reduction plans.

It has also stopped grants worth more than £4million to Blackburn with Darwen Council, and opposition Labour councillors accused their rivals of ‘shattering local services’.

But the coalition branded Labour’s attack ‘absolutely scandalous’, claiming the previous government had left David Cameron and Nick Clegg facing ‘an economic disaster’.

Speaking at last night’s Council Forum meeting at Blackburn town hall, Tory Brian Gordon said: “Any fool can spend money, buying votes they haven’t got.”

Wensley Fold Labour member Dave Harling told the coalition: “I don’t know how your conscience will sit with what your government is doing.

"It’s a shattering of public services, and a shattering of the services this council offers.

“We are not saying we won’t take our share, we are saying we will take our fair share.”

He said staff at the local Connexions service were being forced to reapply for their jobs because it was facing 25 per cent cuts.

His party colleague Andy Kay pointed out that half the constituencies of cabinet members were facing ‘no cuts whatsoever’.

But Liberal Democrat leader David Foster moved a rival motion, accusing Labour of ‘never fully funding the council’ and pledging to fight to decrease the deprivation that had increased under Labour.

He said: ‘We are in the mess we are in – we can argue about who caused it – but we are where we are.”

After a counting mix-up, Labour’s motion was passed.

It had 28 members in the council chamber – compared to the coalition’s 27 – when the vote was taken.