A row about maths caused a fuss at Kirklees Council.

The Tories have accused Labour of making £20m worth of mistakes in their budget.

But it seems neither have got it right.

At a monthly council meeting on Tuesday a report on the council’s finances was put on hold after the Conservatives claimed there were tens of milliions worth of mistakes in the accounts.

Denby Dale Tory, Clr Michael Watson, back from suspension after the Examiner exposed his apparent liking of the Twitter posts of anti-Islam figurehead Tommy Robinson, stood up in the town hall chamber and accused his Labour opponents of incompetence, missing numerous multi-million mistakes in the balance sheet of an annual financial report.

Chief executive Jacqui Gedman was forced to step in to stop councillors from voting the report through while the numbers were double checked.

Jacqui Gedman, chief executive of Kirklees Council

But they could not be sure and so the ‘Financial Outturn and Rollover 2016/17’ report was deferred until next month.

On Wednesday morning, the Conservative group issued a statement claiming they had “embarrassed” the Labour run administration, dubbing them “not fit to run the council”.

Conservative Group leader, Clr David Hall said: “They have illustrated that they can’t manage the books.

“What’s more frightening is that the same figures were approved by a public meeting of the Cabinet.

“At the same council meeting they brought their plans for the coming year showing no thought, no strategy and no ambition.

Clr David Hall
Clr David Hall

“They were signed off by the Leader and Deputy Leader.”

In a reference to classic BBC comedy Blackadder, he added: “I would rather they had been signed by Baldrick, at least he had a cunning plan.”

Rowan Atkinson and Tony Robinson in Blackadder Goes Forth
Rowan Atkinson and Tony Robinson in Blackadder Goes Forth

Kirklees Council admitted there were some errors but confirmed they were “typos” and not accounting mistakes.

The budget of the council is not affected.

A spokesman for Kirklees Council said: “In the report to full council, there was a very small number of typing errors in a small number of columns.

“There were no knock on effects on the rest of the information within the tables, and the actual totals and subtotals in the report are accurate.

“The figures consolidated in the accounts are accurate, and so the recommendation to council and the overall financial position of the council is as reported.

“We would like to apologise for the typing errors which meant that councillors could not independently check the figures themselves. The report will be corrected and brought to a future council meeting.”

Leader of the council, Clr David Sheard, was not available to comment.