SCOTTISH Labour deputy leader candidate Matt Kerr refused to back his own party's proposals at Glasgow's budget meeting yesterday.

Mr Kerr walked out after saying he couldn't support any of the budget options put forward by the city's four parties.

He said elected members needed to stand up to central government and fight more than a decade of cuts.

His group's finance spokesman Malcolm Cunning said the decision was hugely disappointing and accused him of "grandstanding".

Mr Kerr had said: "50 million pounds of cuts to this city is bad enough, but it comes on the back of 13 years of cuts and its the cumulative effect that is doing irreversible damage to our communities.

READ MORE: Glasgow City Council budget: Welcome to the £50m blame game

"People out there are understandably becoming alienated from the political process because they see, and we've heard repeatedly today, talk of the administration.

"We didn't stand for election to be administrators and we certainly didn't stand for election to be administrators of cuts that we know are doing serious damage to our communities."

More than £42m in savings were made after a late deal between the SNP administration and the Green group. Council tax will rise by 4.64 per cent while the Blairvadach Outdoor Resource Centre will be closed and residents will be charged for bulk uplifts.

Mr Kerr said: "We are being bullied by another layer of government that relies on us being an arms length organisation to deliver cuts without responsibility where it lies.

"It leaves us taking the responsibility and facing that every day in our surgeries and in our inboxes. That is not acceptable."

"That is not a respectful relationship, it is a bullying relationship. What do you do with bullies? You stand up to bullies. That's the only way bullies are defeated."

He added: "I cannot in any good conscience vote for anything that has been proposed here today and it's not because I want to disrespect anybody who has put in hard work to create these budgets.

READ MORE: Glasgow City Council agreed budget deal

"It's not because I disrespect the officers who've worked hard to come up options which they think could make the best of a bad situation but it's because I have had enough and I think this city has had enough.

"We owe it to the people we were elected to represent to put up a fight."

But Mr Cunning hit back at Mr Kerr's actions on Twitter. "Hugely disappointed that a candidate to be deputy leader of the Scottish Labour Party, councillor Matt Kerr, would walk out of full council and refuse to vote for the Labour budget, effectively breaking the group whip," he said.

"This is not what I would expect from any group member."

He later added: "You broke the group whip, indulged in personal grandstanding and gifted the SNP an attack line before walking out and leaving your Labour colleagues to deal with the consequences."

Chair of Glasgow Labour Marie Garrity has changed her nomination for the deputy leadership after the incident, backing the other candidate Jackie Baillie.

She said: "Leadership is not walking out on your colleagues or trying to throw them under a bus. That's not unity.

"I nominated Matt Kerr, but through this contest it has become clear that Jackie Baillie is the real change candidate. I will be voting for her."