Conduct Of Expelled Hackney Councillors And The Chief Executive

EDM number 217 in 1996-97, proposed by Brian Sedgemore on 20/11/1996.

That this House notes that the National Executive Committee of the Labour Party carried out a lengthy and detailed investigation into the conduct of six Hackney councillors; further notes that the investigation uncovered, amongst other things, prima facie evidence of criminal activity, election fraud and failure to abide by the statutory National Code of Conduct for councillors; believes that the Labour Party was right to hand over all the relevant information that was uncovered to the police and to suspend and then expel the councillors from the Party; regrets that since then these six councillors have acted in a scurrilous manner in an attempt to provide a smokescreen to cover up these uncomfortable truths; calls on the Chief Executive, Tony Elliston, to warn his staff, in the interests of political and administrative integrity, to keep their distance from these councillors who have corrupted the Council's processes; cannot understand why the Chief Executive has not carried out an enquiry into the fraudulent activities of these councillors who are known to have had an uncomfortabley close relationship with certain senior officers; notes the fact that the full Council has instructed the Chief Executive to investigate certain aspects of fraud by these councillors; and believes that these issues are infinitely more important than the private lives of councillors and officers with which the Chief Executive and the expelled councillors seem obsessed.

This motion has been signed by a total of 1 MPs.