A TORY councillor has called for Inverclyde Council’s SNP group leader to step down from a key Greenock board after councillors demanded the resignation of the board’s chair - a Labour peer who is the landlord of abuse-accused former council leader Stephen McCabe.
The local authority’s SNP group last month demanded that Lord William Haughey resign from his role as chair of the Greenock Town Board following the revelation that the Labour peer was the landlord of Inverclyde Council’s former leader McCabe.
McCabe resigned after he was arrested and charged with assault and threatening and abusive behaviour.
In a joint statement, the SNP group said they believed that McCabe should be referred to the Standards Commission due to a ‘lack of transparency’ over this relationship and called for the situation to be investigated.
Lord Haughey currently remains in post as chair of the board, which is set to oversee the spend of a £20million pot of Levelling Up funding pledged by the previous UK Government.
But the SNP’s calls for him to quit have now sparked Conservative councillor David Wilson to demand that the party’s council group leader, Elizabeth Robertson, now instead resigns her place on the board.
“There are seven Scottish towns that have got this Levelling Up towns fund money and that came from the previous Conservative government.
“This is a substantial sum of money, and I think we were very fortunate to get Lord Willie Haughey to chair our committee.
"I’m sure lots of our places would love to have had him chairing their committee.
“This money will help to transform the centre of Greenock.
“Elizabeth Robertson and Francesca Brennan are the two nominated councillors on the board.
“I would recommend that either Councillor Jim Clocherty or Councillor Graeme Brooks joins in Councillor Robertson’s place.
“The board does not just have Willie Haughey on it, there are other prominent businessmen from the town there.
"It’s a committee of some standing and we have to make the best of it.
“Let’s not, as I think the SNP were trying to do, derail this before it gets going.”
In response to the calls for her to step away, Robertson said: “There is a financial relationship between Lord Haughey and Councillor McCabe.
“Had I known this at the time of Lord Haughey being presented to the town board as chair, I would not have supported this decision, but this was not made known.”
