Tory councillor under fire for abusive email

Matt Bennett, who is the head of Birmingham’s children’s services, attacked his Labour counterpart in a row over the failure of the city’s road contractor Amey to attend local meetings.

Bennett was enraged by an email from Councillor Tony Kennedy saying that the Amey staff should not “compromise in carrying out public duties”.

The highways maintenance firm had stopped attending the local ward meetings after a member of staff was attacked.

But Bennett claimed Kennedy was wrong, and sent him an email response which read: “You really are a complete t—, aren’t you?”

Unknown to bungling Bennett, he had hit ‘reply all’ copying in all 120 other councillors, an Amey highways official and senior council officers.