The Irony of Jonathan Brash’s Council Tax Crusade....
- teessidetoday
- Mar 5
- 7 min read
He may be spearheading a campaign to reform Council Tax which has hammered towns such as Hartlepool, but he wasn't the man who first began this movement, but its a movement he knows is critical to his political survival..
3rd March 2025
Hartlepool Labour MP Jonathan Brash has made waves since being elected to the Hartlepool Constituency Seat with his most recent high-profile campaign now aiming to reform the UK’s broken council tax system, branding it “outdated, unfair, and regressive.”
Retaking the Constituency seat back from the Conservatives nearly a year ago means Mr Brash knows his political survival rests on being an MP more about action rather than just talk, but his latest bandwagon ride seems to be littered with ironies that many claim will only come back to haunt him in the not too distant future..
Launching a parliamentary petition in February this year, Brash has now called upon Hartlepool residents to hand-sign his plea for a fairer taxation framework, spotlighting the disproportionate burden placed on less affluent areas like his constituency of Hartlepool, & whilst his rhetoric might resonate with many struggling households, a deeper look however reveals a rather troubling irony—and a complete disconnect from Hartlepool’s own history of council tax woes.
Far from being a fresh champion of the people, Brash’s campaign actually sidesteps the real roots of the debate, which stretch all the way back to 2018, when a then little known social media group Hartlepool Borough Council Exposed was created. The conversation about council tax unfairness in Hartlepool didn’t actually begin with Jonathan Brash’s most recent glossy petition stunt. It was actually ignited some seven years ago, when in 2018, a grassroots investigation known as Hartlepool Borough Council Exposed, spearheaded by local Journalist & Activist James Barker, finally laid bare the stark reality of how locals in Hartlepool were being fleeced to prop up a failing Labour controlled organisation.
Hartlepool Borough Council, then under a Labour leadership of the Infamous Christopher & Stephen Ackers Belcher, was mired in financial scandals, racking up millions in budget deficits through what many seen to be “gross incompetence”, failed charities & councillor 'vanity projects'. Facing this shortfall, Hartlepool Borough Council—rather than tightening its own belt—opted instead to hike council taxes, tacking an extra £50 onto the average Band A Household Council Tax bill in most cases with each yearly increase.
Over the preceding five years, residents had already seen their bills balloon by roughly £200, a punishing trend for one of the UK’s most deprived areas, yet councillors like Mr Brash a long serving elected member to Hartlepool Borough Council simply decided to sit back & do NOTHING !
Barker’s online exposé's about Hartlepool Borough Councils repeated financial mismanagement wasn't just about numbers; it was a rallying cry against a system that punitively punished the poorest, whilst unelected council directors remained insulated from all accountability & scrutiny.
Hartlepool Borough Councils reliance on regressive tax increases—coupled with scandals like the Manor Residents Association scandal, which saw a Labour councillor jailed for fraud—& the Shades Nightclub fiasco, which cost local tax payers four times what it was originally valued at fuelled a narrative of deep public distrust in a local council that many branded as 'undemocratic', 'out of touch' & 'dangerously extremist'..
This therefore clearly wasn’t a Westminster problem; it was a local one, deeply rooted in Hartlepool’s own corrupt governance. Brash, now cleverly positioning himself as a reformer, conveniently glosses over this history, framing council tax as a national injustice, rather than a symptom of local failures—many of which actually unfolded under his own party’s watch.
Court Summons and Silent Suffering
Fast forward to today, and the fallout from those earlier decisions is painfully evident. Thousands of Hartlepool residents are being hauled before 'kangaroo' courts, summoned over council tax bills they simply can’t afford. In 2023 alone, reports highlighted a significant surge in court action being brought against local residents as Hartlepool Borough Council increasingly chased unpaid debts amidst rising poverty and stagnant wages, and for a town where nearly 25% of its households live below the poverty line—compared to just 12% in areas such as the wealthier Richmond upon Thames—these summons aren’t just paperwork; they’re visible evidence of a lifeline snapped and a council tax support system that's clearly not fit for purpose.
Residents already being battered by £235 million in council cuts since 2013 now face a cruel paradox: pay up or face legal consequences, all whilst council services crumble around them, but unelected council directors continue to trouser huge salaries & pension contributions..
Brash’s campaign, whilst acknowledging this disparity—pointing to the absurdity of a Band A property in Hartlepool costing £1,585 annually versus £648 in Westminster, his solution feels rather empty & detached.
Collecting signatures to petition Parliament might look noble, but it does little to address the immediate crisis of kangaroo court summons or the council’s role in pushing residents to the financial brink, which sadly, in some cases has led to some locals taking their own lives, leaving families without a parent, or a wife or husband.
You may ask yourselves, where was Brash when these summons spiked? The answer is serving as a councillor until August 2024, and now as Hartlepool's MP, signifying the fact that he’s actually been a part of the very system he now critiques—yet his focus now remains on a lofty national overhaul rather than any local accountability.
The Disturbing Irony: Petitions Ignored, Then Strangely Embraced
Coming from a political party that was quite willing to support a 2nd referendum on Brexit & willing to ignore a near three million signature vote for a fresh general election to be called, Perhaps the most galling aspect of Brash’s campaign seemingly is its reliance on public petitions thinking that it will actually do anything other than just be filled in a Westminster filling cabinet somewhere with the hopes that it will be forgotten.
Given Hartlepool’s recent history with such efforts, it suggests a move rather 'symbolic' rather than one of any meaningful action. To give you an Example, In 2023, a petition calling for a public vote of no confidence in Hartlepool Borough Council gained considerable traction, driven by frustration over continued financial mismanagement, numerous council tax hikes & a blatant lack of accountability by the councils top seven directors. Residents clearly demanded action, arguing that their democratic voice was being trampled.
The response? Yep.....You Guessed it !..... Crickets.
Councillors, including those from Brash’s own Labour Party wilfully ignored the petition, letting it wither without any debate or action, opting instead for the petition to be 'noted' & nothing more done about it. The message therefore from Labour back then was clear: public petitions, no matter how impassioned, carried very little weight in Hartlepool’s chambers.
Now, in a twist of irony, Brash has had an epiphany & now suddenly champions a paper petition as the key to unlocking council tax reform. With it, he's now urging local residents to “make their voices heard,” promising to present their signatures to the House of Commons as if this will jolt the Westminster Dictatorship into action. But why should Hartlepool trust this tactic? Just two years ago, a similar outcry was outright dismissed by the very institution Brash served at as a councillor. His newfound faith in public petitions feels less like conviction and more like the political theatrics he relishes in —a cheap way to burnish his credentials as a fighter for fairness whilst sidestepping the council’s complicity in the crisis. If public petitions didn’t sway Hartlepool Borough Council in 2023, why does Brash now think they’ll move a Labour dictatorship elected on just 34% of the public vote to now juggle its own fiscal headaches?
A Misplaced Crusade
Brash’s campaign isn’t without merit—council tax is clearly regressive, and the regional disparities he highlights are very much real. A Band H property in Hartlepool paying £4,755 whilst its Westminster counterpart pays £1,946 is both clearly & morally indefensible. But his approach reeks of selective storytelling. By framing this as a national issue requiring parliamentary signatures, he deflects from Hartlepool’s own track record of mismanagement and the Labour-led council’s role in exacerbating the burden. The 4.99% tax rise approved for 2025/26—pushed through despite Brash’s earlier criticisms—only underscores this disconnect. If he truly wanted fairness, why not start by auditing Hartlepool Borough Council’s spending, like the £182,500 salary of its managing director Denise McGuckin, or pushing for low paid locals to receive 100% council tax support, insulating them from sickening council tax recovery practices ? instead of chasing the Westminster white whale?
Hartlepool deserves better than performative petitions. The debate over council tax unfairness began with Hartlepool Borough Council Exposed in 2018, not with Brash’s 2025 epiphany. Residents drowning in court summons need relief now, not a symbolic signature drive that echoes a ignored 2023 plea. Until Brash confronts the local rot—much of it cultivated under Labour’s previous tenure of Hartlepool Borough Council—his crusade risks being just another chapter in Hartlepool’s long saga of broken promises.
An Hartlepool's had enough of those to last a lifetime !
