Senior Tories in Portsmouth took a group ‘thumbs up’ picture outside a children’s centre they’ve axed, and dismissed the criticism as “paranoia”.

The thumbs up picture, apparently taken after a hard day of campaigning, was outside the Havelock Community Centre – the home of Southsea Children’s Centre.

Except that Neill Young, one of the councillors featured in the picture, had ruled last month that the centre’s Ofsted-recognised programme would be taken away, to cut £205,000 from the council budget.

Lib Dem Central Southsea councillor Lee Hunt told Portsmouth News:

They have just closed the children’s centre and there they are stood outside it giving the thumbs-up. It looks like they’ve made a right pigs ear of things. It looks to me like they are gloating, and I am very, very angry. The Tories are either politically incompetent or they just don’t care, and I suspect it’s an element of both. It’s an absolute own goal.

Councillor Young hit back:

We were out campaigning, we had a good response, so we put a thumbs-up. It wasn’t anything to do with the children’s centre… There will still be some services out of the Havelock centre. There will just be a different way of providing it.

Presumably, “a different way” is euphemism for “less of”.