A LEADING Tory has quit his cabinet job after Labour and opposition parties teamed up to derail Conservative budget plans for Southend.

James Moyies, yesterday resigned from his cabinet role responsible for public health and social care, claiming “financial collapse” is certain following the opposition budget amendments.

Mr Moyies was furious after Labour, Lib Dems, Independents and a Green councillor joined together with a series of budget amendments, including more cash for potholes, three new community safety officers and retaining five roles in the dementia community support team.

Mr Moyies, who plans to switch from his Shoebury ward to neighbouring West Shoebury at the elections on May 2, said: “I don’t want to pick up a budget that I do not think works.”

Speaking of financial mitigations like evening parking charges proposed as part of the budget amendments, Mr Moyies said: “The money they say they will raise is not something I believe will materialise. We spent all year with officers unable to give us a lot of choice for what we can do because the council is at risk of catastrophic collapse.

“Collapse is almost certain, we took all this extra action. Suddenly, there are all these extra services, we had to cut as much as we possibly could and suddenly more is being spent. I do not believe it will balance out, we are closer to going under and we will have to make more hard decisions which are being avoided.

“I didn’t want to go forward another two months, running under a budget our councillors didn’t decide.”

Mr Moyies, touted as a future leader of Southend Conservatives, added that he did not expect further resignations from the cabinet.

“We have made difficult decisions and with all these things together it was too much, I was in the position of we have to save, and now other people think to spend money.”

Daniel Cowan, Southend Labour Group leader has maintained confidence that “the amendment puts the council in a stronger financial position” and will allow the council to improve its revenue streams.