Is the Labour team leading Brighton City Council trying to spin itself out of trouble?

Two weeks after attracting national headlines for its 12-week consultation on outdoor smoking bans, the Brighton & Hove Labour group is recruiting a 'political assistant' (salary £35k) to 'advise' it.

Responding to a Forest tweet on the matter, the Labour leader of Brighton Council, Cllr Warren Morgan, justified the advertisement by saying, 'It's filling a vacancy for an existing post.'

Nevertheless it still begs the question: why is the Labour group on Brighton & Hove City Council using public money to employ someone to 'advise' (Cllr Morgan's words) the Labour team leading the council?

If Labour needs a spin doctor (sorry, 'political assistant'), surely they should be using party funds not taxpayers' money?

Update: Cllr Warren has tweeted again:

All three political groups have an assistant – this has been the case for 10 years and was agreed again cross-party in Feb.

Assuming all three parties (Green, Conservative and Labour) pay similar salaries, that means £100,000 of taxpayers' money is spent every year on those three 'political assistants' alone.

Austerity, eh?