Liberal Democrats question choice of Surrey finance lead with history of “excessive financial risk”

Liberal Democrats demand urgent scrutiny of Conservative appointment of outspoken councillor Ayesha Azad to oversee Surrey County Council's billion pound budget.

• Conservative appointee has overseen worsening local government finance in three former roles.
• Even government ministers described Woking's finances under her leadership as falling within the scope of "excessive risk", having "disproportionate debt" and were a result of pursuing "novel and risky investments".

Liberal Democrats are demanding the right to publically scrutinise the appointment of the Conservative proposal for Surrey's new Cabinet Member for Finance, a position responsible for overseeing annual spending of more than a billion pounds.

Cllr Ayesha Azad has been proposed for this role by the Surrey Council Conservative Group, despite having a track record of taking excessive risk in three former roles in her capacity on Woking Borough Council. Cllr Azad served as Deputy Leader and also as Financial Portfolio Holder under controversial former Woking Leader Cllr David Bittleston, before being nominated for the role of Leader herself by Cllr Bittleston on the day of his own resignation in October 2020.

Ayesha Azad then served as Woking Leader while working alongside former chief executive Ray Morgan, running an embattled minority administration for the majority of this time - before being removed from office following the Liberal Democrat landslide victory in May 2022.

Cllr Azad also currently retains directorships of 16 individual companies linked to the financial position of Woking Borough Council. These positions are soon to be formally removed both from Cllr Azad and all future Woking councillors, as a result of new governance arrangements enacted by Woking Liberal Democrats and opposed in recent meetings by Azad.

It was in the final weeks of Cllr Azad's role as Woking Leader that the government Minister (and more recently candidate for Prime Minister) Kemi Badenoch wrote to Cllr Azad to confirm that officials in Whitehall viewed Woking's finances under her leadership as falling within the scope of "excessive risk", "disproportionate debt" and were a result of pursuing "novel and risky investments".

Since the change of administration in May, further details have continued to come to light about the state of Woking Council's finances and the affordability of its debt under Azad's former leadership.

Will Forster, Deputy Leader of Woking Borough Council and Leader of the Liberal Democrats on Surrey County Council comments: "Conservatives want to reward one of their own because of her electoral failure in another job - and her financial irresponsibility beforehand. This could be a disastrous appointment for Surrey Council and local people deserve better.

"That's why I've asked for an urgent opportunity to debate this potentially disastrous appointment and allow Surrey County Council to properly scrutinise the Conservative administration for this decision in a public forum.

"It's curious that given the revelations regarding the financial situation at Woking Council under the leadership of Cllr Azad that the County Council would now consider her to be the right person to take on this job. I sincerely hope that we do not see the same absence of transparency and lack of rigour in Surrey County Council's finances that we have witnessed at Woking Borough Council. Meanwhile in Woking it is now up to the Lib Dems to sort out the mess the Conservatives left behind."