A video of the leader of the local MK Conservatives addressing a pro-cuts meeting saying his local party has had “fun” whilst cuts have had to be made and saying weekly bin collections are “uninspiring” has been leaked, after it was posted and deleted from a Facebook Group.

Addressing a meeting of the Taxpayers Alliance, thought to be at Conservative Party Conference last September, Cllr Walker is heard to say that since Labour took over running the council in 2014: “We’ve had some fun.”

MK Council has had to make £165m in cuts since 2010, and had to reduce vital services to children, old people and the homeless.

Despite the cuts, MK Council is one of the few remaining local authorities to keep weekly collections, but Cllr Walker doesn’t agree with that decision, saying: “The kind of cuts we’ve had to make over the last 8/9 years are rather uninspiring, we still have our weekly bin collections”

Labour-led MK Council recently announced it would run a six month trial of wheelie bins with an innovative collection scheme that would see the beloved weekly collection of smelly residual waste, including food waste, saved for the long-term.

The video of the event was posted on the Taxpayer Alliance social media page, but quickly mysteriously deleted. A copy was forwarded to MK Labour by a concerned Conservative Party insider.

Cllr Emily Darlington, Cabinet Member for Public Realm, said: “The MK Conservative government has forced crippling austerity on MK Council. We’ve had to make £165m of difficult cuts. Yet the arrogant local MK Conservative leader is happy to say that he and his local party have had “fun” in his own words, whilst difficult decisions on these devastating cuts have had to be made.”

She continued: “I know that many people in MK value the fact that despite austerity we have managed to retain a high quality weekly bin collection. However, Cllr Walker thinks saving this service is “uninspiring,” again in his own words. Maybe he thinks it would have been more “fun” to cut the service?”

She concluded: “The truth is that MK Conservatives are not serious about austerity or running the Council. Devastating cuts and hardship have been “fun,” to them, and we now know they’d cut weekly collections of smelly waste too. Cllr Walker should apologise and consider his position if he believes cuts have been “fun,” or apologise if he was merely showing off for the attention of a pro-cuts audience.”