Sutton's Lib Dem Council agreed an £18m deal to buy property in Reading from an investment company linked to a global corruption investigation, and only dropped out after Conservative Councillors fought for you against this deal.
As reported in the Sutton Guardian, the Lib Dems were not only ready to spend £18m of your money from Sutton in Reading, with the implication that there was nothing they could invest £18m into here in Sutton, but the retail park they were about to purchase was from a company linked to Unaoil, which is currently under investigation for corrpution in many countries.
If this was not bad enough, the retail park's chief tenant was Matalan, which is currently in special measures with their bank, rendering it a potentially unsafe investment.
Councillor Tim Crowley, the Leader of the Conservative Group on Sutton Council, said: "We have to tread very carefully when investing outside of the borough. Before the whole issue of transparency and who would be the ultimate beneficiary of the £18 million came to light, I was concerned that this deal would send out the wrong signals to those who may have been thinking of investing in Sutton. We have council officers and lead members standing up beating the drum via the vehicle of Opportunity Sutton when secretly they are investing £18 million in another borough. It was a crass and irresponsible thing to do and one which could have seriously damaged the borough’s reputation.”