WARRINGTON Conservatives have been accused of desperately trying to ‘stick the boot’ into council staff and playing ‘silly political games’ in a Twitter row.

The Labour-run council has paid out more than £15 million in grants for businesses affected by the coronavirus crisis.

Following the release of grant funding by the Government to local authorities, the borough’s benefits and exchequer service has taken steps to ensure these funds are administered as quickly as possible.

But the news was questioned by Warrington Conservatives, who raised the issue with council leader Cllr Russ Bowden on social media.

It tweeted: “How has WBC only managed £15m when the likes of Cornwall has had £135m?

“This isn’t something to be shouting about @CllrRussBowden and you must do more to distribute the funds to local businesses!”

They also shared a tweet from housing secretary Robert Jenrick, showing a number of other authorities that have distributed more.

But the tweet from the town’s Tories sparked criticism from figures at the Town Hall.

Cllr Bowden said: “This is an epic fail by Warrington Tories & all the worse for being in this current crisis.

“Desperate to stick the boot into hardworking @WarringtonBC staff, once again they miss the obvious facts.

“Large unitaries have been given massive grant allocations compared to Warrington.

“They also have far greater numbers of staff in their business teams.

“What anybody would sensibly compare would be the % of grant allocation that has been sent out so far.

“On that basis @WarringtonBC performs equal to the best of them – processing ~50% of the grant allocation.

“We are performing better than many local councils, some of which haven’t got started yet.”

Deputy leader Cllr Cathy Mitchell said this is ‘not the time to be playing party politics’ and told Warrington Conservatives to ‘grow up’.

Independent borough councillor Dan Price also criticised the Conservatives.

He tweeted: “Whoever wrote this tweet needs a serious telling off.

“These silly political games should always be avoided, but especially during this period.”

Wendy Maisey OBE, chair of Warrington Conservatives, has released a short statement on the matter.

She said: “Whilst I wasn’t the source of this tweet there are questions that need to be answered by WBC, labelling it silly political games is counterproductive.

“We are not doubting the hard work of the WBC employees on the ground, but it’s obvious that the council needs to put more resource into this department and support the 3,000 or so businesses in Warrington who qualify for this rebate.

“The planning department remains open, yet staff are stretched in a department in which many local businesses are relying upon for their very survival at the moment.

“Four members of staff is obviously woefully inadequate to serve the business community in this time of crisis, why not redeploy WBC workers from other departments to meet the demand like other authorities are doing?”