Dear oh dear. As the Birmingham bin strikes rumble on and rubbish continues to pile high on the city’s streets, some of the area’s residents can’t get out of there quick enough – including the, um, MP for Birmingham Hodge Hill and Solihull North, Liam Byrne. The senior Labour politician has found himself in the spotlight after he was accused of abandoning his constituents by taking an extravagant trip to Japan during the crisis. Alright for some!
As revealed by the Mail, Byrne flew to Asia with seven other politicians on the business committee at the end of March. But at the same time the parliamentarian was enjoying his business class flight and five-star hotel stay in Tokyo, Birmingham’s bin workers were taking strike action – with uncollected rubbish piling up so quickly that the city council was forced to declare a major incident in the area three days after the MP left for Japan.
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