Luton Labour councillor faces 'extra training' after making 'untrue allegations' about Lib Dems

A complaint was lodged against Labour Challney councillor Tom Shaw by Lib Dem group leader Amjid Ali and upheld by a local adjudication panel.

It followed questions about a licensing scheme which councillor Ali asked the local authority’s portfolio holder for housing, waste and climate change at a full council meeting in November.

Councillor Shaw replied: “The Liberal Democrats don’t support the licensing scheme outside of the town hall and were campaigning against it in the local elections.”

Councillor Ali said: “When he refused to apologise, the potentially damaging untrue nature of the allegations left us with no alternative but to pursue this formal complaint.”

LBC monitoring officer Mark Turner mentioned a local assessment panel initially considering the complaint in March, saying: “It decided there had been potentially a breach of the council’s Code of Conduct and instructed me to do a limited investigation.

“The complainant councillor Ali has provided evidence from a range of sources showing the Liberal Democrat group has been publicly supportive of the selective licensing scheme.

“Councillor Shaw has produced no evidence to refute the complaint, or to show his comments were true, or he believed them to be true at the time he made them.”

The panel voted to continue in councillor Shaw’s absence, with Mr Turner adding: “He was invited to attend the meeting and has decided he doesn’t wish to.”

Independent person Chris Fogden noted the seven pieces of evidence supplied by the complainant were set out quite clearly, while no information was presented by councillor Shaw.

“Overall, given the details available, I believe the complaint should be upheld and proceed to consideration by the committee,” he suggested. “That would be my recommendation.”

Labour Northwell councillor Amy Nicholls said: “Having carefully considered the evidence, the panel has found councillor Shaw made untrue allegations against Liberal Democrat councillors at the meeting in November.

“We’ve determined that by misrepresentation councillor Shaw breached two areas of the code, but not a third.”

Councillor Ali explained: “It’s unfortunate councillor Shaw tried to malign the Liberal Democrat group. It brings our integrity into question.

“It has impacted us. It’s unfortunate a senior council thinks it’s acceptable to lie about something when they know it’s untrue. Otherwise they would have made some representations here today.”

Councillor Nicholls added: “The panel has resolved to ask monitoring officer to arrange suitable training on the code of conduct for councillor Shaw and report his attendance at a future standards committee meeting.

“And we request the monitoring officer report the decision to the next appropriate full council meeting.”

Councillor Shaw has a right of appeal “on certain grounds” within ten days. He would need to prove a substantial misdirection of law or a misunderstanding.

“If an appeal doesn’t meet these criteria it will fail,” warned Mr Turner. “A separate panel with different members would consider any appeal.”