Cornwall Council’s leader has been slammed by a political rival for “totally bonkers” comments she made on the national stage about the council’s decision to pursue a Cornwall-only devolution deal with the Government.

Independent councillor Julian German claims that Conservative Linda Taylor described Cornwall as now being in a “nationalist wonderland”, something he says is outrageous.

On Tuesday, January 21, a meeting of the full council voted on a motion by Mebyon Kernow leader Dick Cole that the unitary authority should stick with its stance to stand alone if and when it comes to any changes to the local government structure as suggested in Labour’s English Devolution White Paper.

Councillors voted by 54 for and four against, with 11 abstentions, to “not countenance” any cross-border combined Devonwall-style deals with political neighbours in Plymouth or Torbay. They also agreed to once again call for a “meaningful” devolution settlement for Cornwall, which properly reflects the Duchy’s national identity and the national minority status of the Cornish.

Conservative council leader Linda Taylor was one of those who abstained from the vote. Three days after the debate, Cllr Taylor represented Cornwall at a County Councils Network leaders’ meeting. All county councils and other unitary authorities, like Cornwall, are represented at the event.

Former leader of Cornwall Council Julian German was also present at the online meeting as he is vice-chair of the network’s Independent group.

“It was all about devolution and local government reforms,” said Cllr German. “Later on in the meeting Linda came in and said ‘You might see some pigs flying if I tell you what’s happening in Cornwall’. I just couldn’t believe that a council leader who had just had a democratic vote was so dismissive of her council and indeed her group. It wasn’t a slim vote.

“She said a bit about what was going on and described Cornwall as now being in a ‘nationalist wonderland’. It’s totally bonkers and misses the point.”

Cllr Taylor survived a bid to oust her as leader in November with 43 councillors voting in favour of her staying, 32 wanting her out and five abstentions.

“We had the vote of confidence and said about her listening more broadly,” Cllr German told us. “Now she’s got her own group and most of the rest of the council saying ‘this is the council’s policy position, we want a Cornwall-only region’ and then she’s off in a meeting of council leaders from around the country dissing it. I don’t think it’s on.

“It’s outrageous – it’s not the sort of behaviour that Cornwall should be seeing from its leader.”

Cllr Taylor has not responded to a request for comment.

She and a number of other councillors made it clear that they were wary of dismissing out of hand talks with other authorities, even if Cornwall ultimately decided to go it alone.

On the day of the devolution motion, the council’s Conservative administration lost its ruling majority after Cllr Mike McLening defected to the Independent group.