THE Labour Party has suspended a prominent Councillor in Renfrewshire, adding to the seemingly never-ending list of Labour Councillors to be shown the door over across the UK over the past year.
Councillor Jim Harte, who represents Erskine and Inchinnan, suddenly resigned as finance spokesman last week, before an important meeting to finalise the council’s budget – meaning that the meeting couldn’t go ahead.
It has now been confirmed that Cllr Harte has been suspended from the Labour party pending an investigation; however the Labour Party has declined to comment on the reason for the suspension.
Apparently accepting the decision, in his resignation letter, Harte stated that he would not be standing in the local elections in May, as he did not “have the stomach for it.”
Cllr Harte is just one of dozens of Labour Councillors who have been suspended over the past 12 months, with reasons ranging from antisemitism to corruption, or even for voting against council cuts, for which no less than nine Labour Councillors were suspended in Liverpool this month alone.
Do we know just how many MPs, councillors etc have been suspended, charged, convicted in the last 12 months?