A Labour councillor has broken ranks to launch an extraordinary attack on the way in which the leading political group on Manchester council is run.
Councillor Marcia Hutchinson says there are no clear rules setting out how all 94 of the group’s members should behave in a series of claims published on Twitter.
The whips’ office, a group of councillors that enforce discipline, have a ‘ludicrously wide remit’ to decide what the rules are, when they are broken and subsequent punishments, she claims.
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Allegations of wrongdoing are made anonymously by one councillor to another, encouraging people to ‘settle scores or try to remove rivals’, according to Coun Hutchinson.
The Ancoats and Beswick councillor said: “The first rule of Labour group is don’t talk about Labour group, but democracy dies in darkness.”
Councillor Pat Karney, secretary of the council's Labour group, described the article as ‘inaccurate and unfair’ and insisted that the group follows national party rules and procedure.
The article claims two female councillors observing a vigil for Sarah Everard, who was killed by police officer Wayne Couzens in March, were almost banned from standing for Labour group roles after being reported anonymously for breaking Covid lockdown rules.
But the sanctions were scrapped after councillors shared their own powerful experiences of domestic abuse at a full council meeting at Manchester town hall, Coun Hutchinson said.
Another councillor was disciplined for ‘inadvertently’ appearing in a photograph with a Liberal Democrat activist and was banned permanently for standing as an officer for the group, Coun Hutchinson claims.
Concluding her article, Coun Hutchinson says: “No doubt I'll be hauled before the bench for writing this article, but if it leads to a change in the way Manchester Labour group whips' office operates, some good will come of it.”
With the council’s leader of 25 years Sir Richard Leese, standing down, Coun Hutchinson says it is a ‘golden opportunity to change things’.
The letter calls for the new leader to reform the whips’ office by ensuring that except in cases of allegations of sexual abuse, there should be no anonymity for accusers.
Coun Hutchinson said a written code of conduct with clear sanctions is ‘essential’ to allow councillors to do their jobs ‘with certainty’, while the whips’ office should better represent a council where almost 30 per cent of councillors are from minority ethnic groups.
Asked to respond to Coun Hutchinson’s letter, Coun Karney described it as ‘no big deal’ having dealt with new councillors clashing with whips over the years.
All disciplinary actions are fed back to the full Labour group, he said, while anonymous complaints are ‘not anonymous to myself and the group whip’.
“Members write to us in confidence and myself and the whip quiz these members to establish facts before any action is taken,” said the Harpurhey councillor.
“The group whips follow Labour party rules and are accountable to the full group of members.
“They are elected each year by the group. We maintain gender and diversity across group officers and the executive.
“We are the only group in the country that has over 50 per cent women members.
“It’s dead simple, we either have 94 Labour groups or we have one where members respect and co-operate with each other.”
Coun Karney said he was personally disappointed that Coun Hutchinson ‘has not had the good manners to talk to me about her concerns’.
He added: “We will be talking to Coun Hutchinson about her concerns.
“My experience is that these town hall dramas have little impact on a public that expects us to deliver daily services and stand up to Boris Johnson when he visits Manchester next month.”
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