LEADING Labour councillor James Alexander has been accused of trying to scupper the deal which brought York Barbican back to life.

Liberal Democrat leader Carol Runciman claimed Coun Alexander made a number of false claims about City of York Council’s contract with new operators SMG, putting at risk last Saturday’s successful reopening.

But Coun Alexander has strongly denied the claims, insisting it was actually the Liberal Democrats who put the deal at risk and saying it “beggared belief” they would attack Labour over the Barbican before the party formally took office.

Coun Runciman said Coun Alexander had questioned the legality of the deal last September, saying it was “state aid” to a private company, and Labour had tried to debate confidential aspects of the scheme in public in November, despite being told this was against legal advice and could jeopardise the deal.

She said: “Also in November, Coun Alexander made – and repeated a number of times – false claims in the press about the deal, putting the agreement at risk and misleading the public. Clearly they were desperate for the deal not to be a good news story at the time and seemed quite happy to risk the future of the Barbican for their own political benefit.”

Coun Alexander said: “We did not make false claims and did not jeopardise the deal. We actively supported it and are very pleased to see the Barbican opened after the Lib Dems closed it seven years ago.”

He claimed the Lib Dems had broken confidentiality over the agreement in election literature, but tried to keep issues of increased risk to the taxpayer secret.

“These risks were raised by Labour and reduced under the direction of SMG when the contract was signed.”

He claimed the attack showed that the Lib Dems were “clutching at straws” following a heavy defeat in the recent elections.