Nigel Martin

I had thought that the recent elections might put and end to the bickering and in-fighting that has been going on in the Labour Group at County Hall for the past two years, but I was clearly wrong.

The news that five of the recently-elected councillors from the Easington district had been suspended by the Labour Party over the issue of women selections means that it is business as usual in this regard.

The five include Albert Nugent, former County Labour Leader, Alan Napier current Easington District Leader and three other newcomers to County Hall, including two women.

This is a really strange collection. After all there were 24 Labour candidates and 19 were elected. What did this famous five do to be picked out? Why not the rest?

Initially Albert and Alan were reported as showing interest in being Leader at County Hall although Alan dropped out of the race early.

The conspiracy theorists might say this was a ruse to prevent Albert being elected Leader (suspension means he and the other four would technically be barred from the Labour Group).

Taking the suspension argument one step further, if these five cannot be members of the Labour Group, then the Labour Group is reduced to 62 and is in a minority of the 126 councillors.

I am looking forward to speaking to the legal eagles at County Hall over this rather interesting state of affairs as it would affect the allocation of committee places in a significant way.

More importantly I shall be trying to get hold of Councillor Simon Henig who was elected Labour Group Leader yesterday to discuss the much more serious issues around moving to the new unitary authority.