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LW: Councillor resigned after suspension from Labour Party for ‘irregular benefit claims’ investigation

By on Friday 24th July 2009 12:12 / 3 comments

 

Dennis McFarlaneFormer Luton and Wayfield Councillor Dennis McFarlane resigned twelve weeks after he was suspended from the Labour Party.

Mr McFarlane is under investigation for ‘irregular benefit claims’, according to a statement released by Medway Labour Group Leader Cllr Paul Godwin. He has not attended Council meetings since his suspension from the Labour Party.

Cllr Godwin said ‘I can confirm that Cllr Dennis McFarlane was suspended by the Labour Party on April 21, 2009, following his notification to us that he was under investigation for irregular benefit claims.

‘We have also removed Cllr McFarlane from the Medway Labour Group whip since this date and he therefore has not been involved in the work of the Labour Group since that time. Dennis McFarlane resigned as a councillor on July 14, 2009.’

Mr McFarlane has contested both local elections since the new council composition was introduced in 2003:

2007 Election Results
Luton and Wayfield, May 3, 2007

Pos Candidates Party Votes
2 Val Goulden Labour 1483 – elected
3 Dennis John McFarlane Labour 1375 – elected
4 Alan Gordon Beavan Conservative 807 – not elected

2003 Election Results
Princes Park, May 1, 2003

Pos Candidates Party Votes
2 Christine Joyce Crane Conservative 570 – elected
3 Dennis John McFarlane Labour 541 – not elected
4 Christopher Rainbow Labour 484 – not elected

Also in Luton and Wayfield, the UK Independence Party has confirmed that not only will they be fielding a candidate, but also that said candidate is already in place and will be announced as soon as nomination papers have been received.

2009 By-Election
September 3, 2009

Candidates Party Votes
To be announced British National Party -
To be announced Labour -
To be announced UK Independence Party -
 

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3 Comments

  1. Anonymous says:
    Monday 27th July 2009 at 19:27

    Deeply embarrasing for the Medway labour Party. Not that Medway will see much of this in the papers..The medway mesenger is labour’s ‘voicebox’. Its no reason therefore that it’s circulation is in freefall! Deliver the people what they want to read… The editors should get real as in the Euro’s Labour were [3rd!], and no doubt at the next general election there should be at least 2 CON gains here, possibly 3 at a push.

    Jonathan Shaw and Paul Clark will be playing this one down big style… I wonder if the ‘leak’ to the News of The World about the whore house and this story are linked……

  2. Anonymous says:
    Thursday 30th July 2009 at 13:24

    Agree with the above. I gave up reading the Messenger some time ago due to it’s quite obvious Labour bias. Week after week they devote the majority of their letters page to Labour stooges, and there is no clear attempt at balance. If they have a story that is good for the Tories, they stick it in the Monday copy which hardly anyone reads, then fill the more widely read Friday edition with anti-Tory rhetoric. It’s a shame really, it could be a good paper otherwise but it’s just another example of the rapidly vanishing dead-tree press.

  3. John Ward says:
    Thursday 30th July 2009 at 21:36

    I have to broadly agree with Anon above. I even commented on the lack of media coverage of this, which started with his siuspension several months ago, and there was still nothing anywhere for a good two weeks after his resignation from the Council.

    Contrast that with what happened to me last year?

 
 

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