"Politically motivated" councillor probe thrown out

7:24am Friday 25th July 2008

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A COUNCILLOR who bitterly defected from Labour has been cleared of wrongdoing following a standards investigation instigated by her former colleagues.

An investigation by Wycombe District Council into Cllr Julia Wassell, who is also a county councillor, found two of three claims made - alleging she was rude to members - appeared to be "politically motivated" against her.

Now Cllr Wassell - who defected to the Liberal Democrats in May - is calling for Labour to pick up any costs from the investigation, which she called a "waste of money."

She said this week: "This has been a politically motivated vendetta. Why should council taxpayers pay for that ?"

But a Labour spokesman said the allegations had been reported by an independent councillor for the party to look into and it therefore had to pass them on to the council to look into once she left.

It comes after a Tory member warned that the council risks wasting taxpayers' money over "spurious and frivolous" claims as it was this year given responsibility for investigations into the conduct of councillors.

Another investigation - again thrown out - cost £5,000, he said.

The investigation into Cllr Wassell was called by the Labour group leader of the council, Cllr Glyn Galbraith, over three incidents.

He alleged Cllr Wassell had inappropriately supported oppos-ition Tories over an NHS debate, which Cllr Wassell denied.

Cllr Galbraith also alleged she was later "abusive" to independent councillor Malcolm Blanksby in a telephone call - denied by Cllr Wassell - and made a sexist comment about him.

Cllr Wassell admitted the latter charge but said she had withdrawn the comment.

Yet the investigation found a party member was "not bound under the code to follow a particular party line."

And the complaints initial assessment sub-committee said the other allegations "appear to be politically motivated and are not considered to be sufficiently serious to warrant further action."

Cllr Wassell - Labour's candidate in the 2005 general election - said: "They have wasted public money and I think they should re-pay it. They should also go on compulsory standards training."

She quit the party acrimoniously in May with a swipe at Labour's "increasingly authoritarian" att-itude.

Cllr Galbraith - who has said he will not appeal - was on holiday this week. Labour spokesman Ralph Ashenhurst said: "Malcolm Blanksby complained to us. We were unable to have our own inquiry so we were obliged to pass on our complaint to the standards committee."

He said Cllr Blanksby - who declined to comment - complained, as parties had agreed to criticise the Tories for claiming Wycombe Hospital would close.

But Cllr Wassell said her speech to Tory cabinet members was "satirical" and she did not break the party line. She said she gave Tory health spokesman Wendy Mallen her "commiserations" after Mrs Mallen claimed she had been misquoted in the Bucks Free Press saying the hospital would close.

She said she later called Cllr Blanksby to ask him why he did not raise his point directly with her - but denied being rude.

Later, at a group meeting, she claimed he was playing a "silly old man's game", a comment she said she withdrew.

Mr Ashenhurst claimed her behaviour on the phone was "abusive" and said: "If we had not done anything we would be open to criticism from Cllr Blanksby."

He said: "It certainly wasn't politically motivated. It was motivated by a desire to have Councillor Blanksby's complaint investigated. It did not originate from the Labour Party."

Earlier this month, Conservative councillor Roger Colomb told the council one case had cost the council £5,000, excluding officer time.

Most complaints were "spurious and frivolous" and a "scandalous waste of council tax," he said.

Council leader Lesley Clarke told BFP the council had not been given extra money by Government to take on the new responsibility to carry out standards probes.

But Louise Mason, spokesman for the Communities and Local Government department, which funds councils, said extra funding was available.