“Labour can’t be trusted to spend taxpayers’ money” was the claim made after a councillor’s motion to compensate taxi drivers affected by the rise of rider sharing service Uber was defeated.

Watford borough councillors Matt Turmaine and Bilqees Mauthoor, both Labour, asked the council to investigate offering compensation to existing licence plate holders to balance the negative effect caused by the increasing number of Uber cabbies in Watford.

However the motion was defeated when put to a vote at the majority Liberal Democrat full council on October 11.

Afterwards, Lib Dem Hertfordshire county councillor Stephen Giles-Medhurst criticised the fiscal decision making of Labour’s representatives.

“No wonder their credibility nationally and locally is shot to pieces - they haven't learned any lessons from the last time they were in charge. You just can't trust Labour with taxpayers’ money,” he said.

“It is a commercial enterprise. If we are going to go down the route of compensating like that, it opens the door to all kinds of businesses. It doesn’t work like that.

“We are in a free market economy, and competition is part and parcel of that.”

As such, he suggested the only way to curb Uber drivers undercutting licensed cabbie fares was for central government to introduce regulation.

Cllr Giles-Medhurst also scrutinised the motivation behind the motion, speculating that backing from the Licenced Taxi Drivers’ Association could have spurred the Labour councillors’ proposition.

As well as asking the council to investigate the prospect of compensating cabbies, Cllr Turmaine said it was important that Uber drivers were “brought within the council framework rules to ensure passenger safety and a thriving local taxi trade”.

He also said the council should “establish and maintain a dialogue with relevant organisations in relation to the debate on minimum wage and workplace rights impacting this business sector”.