Conservative councillors boycotted a special council meeting at which two people were awarded the “freedom of the city” on a point of principle.
Brighton and Hove City Council honoured Emily Kenward, founder of the charity Time to Talk Befriending, and Abraham Ghebre-Ghiorghis, the council’s former principal legal adviser and monitoring officer.
Both were formally nominated for the honour at the special council meeting by the Labour leader of the council Bella Sankey.
At Hove Town Hall this afternoon (Thursday 18 December), Councillor Sankey praised the contribution of both over many years – and the honour was backed unanimously by all councillors in the chamber.
But in a statement, the Conservatives said: “The Conservative group feel that the award of the freedom of the city is not one to be given lightly.
“As Brighton and Hove holds a prominent place in the country and it’s the city’s highest honour, it should be reserved for those whose work has not only demonstrated citywide significance but ideally earned national renown.”
The council changed its approach to the honour earlier this year, inviting nominations from members of the public.
The council said: “The award recognises exceptional service or achievement that has made a significant impact on the city and its people.”
The honour was first bestowed in 2004 on the journalist Adam Trimingham, who died earlier this year.
Individual recipients have included World War I veteran Henry Allingham, RAF pilot Marc Heal, former Brighton and Hove Buses boss Roger French and former Lord Lieutenant Sir Peter Field.
Others include Olympic champion Steve Ovett and football bosses Dick Knight, Tony Bloom and Chris Hughton for their achievements with Brighton and Hove Albion.
The freedom of the city was also bestowed on the former Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi although she was later stripped of the honour. And most recently the suffragette Mary Clarke was recognised.
Who else were on the short list before these two received the award ?
It doesn’t matter, the conservatives were subject to a boycott by the electorate in 2024. The few remaining whisps of Toryism smattered around the country will be gone before the end of the decade.
Just ignore the dinosaurs, they’ll be oil soon enough.
So what has Abraham Ghebre-Ghiorghis done to deserve this award? The article does not say. If he is simply a long-serving Council Officer, he is just one of many.
All you need to do is google his name Tracy stop being lazy.
Google “Brighton council meetings.
Go to the calendar then yesterdays council meeting
Then read the paper.
“Tories cite point of principle saying honour should reward national renown”
Nonsense.
The purpose of a Freedom of the City is to recognise outstanding service in the local area.
It’s pretty performances like this that demonstrate why the Cons are continuing to become irrelevant. If my chosen party refused to participate for that reason, I’d be deeply embarrassed.
30,000 residents in the city voted for the Conservatives at the last general & council elections here. Also, we are currently second in most polls nationally only behind Reform.
Closer to 18,000 and only if we are being generous with the definition of city borders. Most polls also have Cons behind Labour. Locally, you’ve lost 60% of your seats since 2019, and a fifth of your vote share. Last by-election Sunny only got 3% of the vote, didn’t even break 100 votes. And let’s remind ourselves what just happened in Hastings, a massive 70% drop in votes. Trending irrelevance backed by hard numbers, I’m afraid, councillor.
Despite all that, you have failed to evade my point. An embarrassing reason to boycott a celebration. It is petty bitterness that continues to prove why the Cons are becoming irrelevant politically to Reform.
Councillor why did you boycott the vote?
What dreadful behaviour!
The Conservatives should not have made this a partisan issue.