A CONSERVATIVE councillor who compared striking bin workers to terrorists said he would not give in to “bully-boy tactics” and apologise for his remarks.

Rottingdean Coastal councillor Joe Miller has been criticised by GMB and former Kemptown MP Sir Andrew Bowden for saying “you can’t negotiate with terrorists,” when referring to the ongoing dispute between the union and the council.

Cllr Miller has rejected calls for him to write an apology to the union and has said that the GMB is holding the city hostage.

He said: “Ultimately they are holding the city’s residents, taxpayers and businesses to ransom with their withdrawal of labour when the strike was never to do with pay originally.

“They are acting entirely unreasonably with their pay request - it’s going to cost millions of pounds resulting from an equal pay dispute, that will lead to austerity across the council, which will result in services such as those for children and those with special educational needs being cut.

“So they are acting like, not are, terrorists or pirates holding the city hostage for a significant pay ransom.

“Sometimes the truth does hurt but that is the case - they are saying they are not going back to work until they get millions of pounds of pay increases.”

Cllr Miller said that the Conservatives were sympathetic to some of the concerns of GMB workers but say their demands for pay are unreasonable and disproportionate.

He claimed that he was forced to leave by a different exit to the town hall in Hove yesterday after the council meeting, amid security fears, but said that he will not be bullied and will continue to stand up for residents and their interests.

“These bully-boy tactics of additional security having to be put in place during the meeting yesterday and going out of different entrances as they were outside - I am not going to be bullied into apologising for something I didn’t say.

“I didn’t call them terrorists - the GMB categorically are not terrorists.

“You have to take a strong stance against this kind of behaviour and I am standing up for Conservative principles. You can’t give in to unions on their first demand.

“For too long, Brighton and Hove City Council has been run by the GMB with Labour and Green administrations as their puppet and the public should know this.”

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