Khyra Ishaq death: City council employed £800-a-day spin doctor to put council's story

Feb 27 2010 by Paul Dale, Birmingham Mail

BIRMINGHAM City Council has spent £800 a day to employ a specialist PR consultant in the wake of tragic Khyra Ishaq’s death, an MP has claimed.

Terry Brownbill, a former journalist who runs TBA PR, which is based in East Anglia, was engaged by the council’s children’s services department.

The council confirmed to the Mail that Mr Brownhill’s contract ran for up to 141 days. This would make the contract worth about £113,000 in all.

Despite the council employing a full-time team of six press officers, Mr Brownbill was brought in after Khyra’s death and also acted as a spokesman during the trial of her mum Angela Gordon and stepdad Junaid Abuhamza.

Both are facing jail after being convicted of manslaughter and child cruelty charges on Thursday.

MP Khalid Mahmood revealed the £800 figure and described the deal as “deplorable”.

The council has repeatedly refused to comment on the specific nature of Mr Brownbill’s work and, despite numerous requests, would not confirm the details of his firm’s fees.

The Mail lodged a Freedom of Information request last August, but the council claimed it could not give out details of how it spent taxpayers’ money because it was “personal information, which was not outweighed by the public interest”.

It also argued that releasing the figure would damage the commercial interests of Mr Brownbill’s company.

The Information Commissioner’s Office is currently deciding if the council was right to withhold the details of Mr Brownbill’s remuneration from the Mail.

But Mr Mahmood, Labour MP for Perry Barr, said: “I understand he is being paid £800 a day.

“I think it is disgraceful at a time when the council is making cuts to vital front-line services.

“It is extraordinary he has been employed to defend the image of the council. They have employed him to cover up their own inadequacies and deficiencies.

“These payments are being made when the council is telling us it has no money for people who do important jobs on the front line.

“It is absolutely deplorable and I dread to think what the overall cost will be to the taxpayer. This has been going on for a few years. They could have employed ten people for the same amount.”

A spokesman for the Taxpayers’ Alliance said: “This is an incredible cost, especially considering Birmingham taxpayers already pay out for the authority’s press officers who are in place to deal with the media.

“Residents deserve to know the truth above being bombarded by council spin.”

An internal review of the council’s refusal of the Mail’s freedom of information request forced the children’s services department to confirm Mr Brownbill had a contract for up to 141 days, which did not have to run consecutively.

Of that period, he had worked for 53 days between last April and August.

The council added: “The formal agreement between Birmingham City Council and Terry was a contract for up to 141 days, to support a media plan for children’s social care and safeguarding during the period of the improvement notice.

“This included a wider campaign to raise awareness of the role of social workers in order to support recruitment and retention of social workers.”

Mr Brownbill, a former PR officer at Fenland District Council, in East Anglia, said he was not willing to comment when the Mail contacted him.

He added: “I am waiting for the FOI response and I do not feel that it’s appropriate for you to publish.”

A council in a cash crisis, but with 120 press officers to spin the story > > >