Call for councillor to resign after ex-councillors cleared

A former chairman of Medway Liberal Democrats has called on his former colleague Councillor Andy Stamp, now an independent councillor, to resign after allegations he made against former councillors and colleague were found to be untrue.

In a letter to the Medway Messenger today (Friday, July 8), Alan Jefferies sensationally claimed that Cllr Stamp broke both the Council’s Code of Conduct and the law in the way he acted after he submitted a complaint against former Liberal Democrat councillors Cathy Sutton and Maureen Ruparel.

“I warned him in December 2009 that nothing improper had occurred,” Mr Jefferies wrote, “but he claimed he knew better and I … was trying to hush up the matter.

“This was just plainly untrue and now proved to be so.”

Cllr Stamp had been refusing to comment after his former colleagues were cleared of any wrongdoing by the council, which also caught Mr Jefferies’ attention.

“It was very interesting to note that he was suddenly unavailable for press comment as he has for almost 18 months made every effort to be in the press while he was spouting his accusations,” Mr Jefferies said.

“He has, without doubt, damaged his own political credibility for the future.”

Cllr Stamp was re-elected to Medway Council in May on a slim majority, along with one of his Independent running mates Pat Cooper. The third, Dan McDondald, lost out to Labour’s Adam Price in the marginal Gillingham North seat.

Mrs Ruparel had already taken the decision to stand down at the election, leaving just Cathy Sutton to fight to retain her seat as a Liberal Democrat. With a fierce contest from Labour and the independents, the Liberal Democrats could barely muster a few hundred votes.

However, Mr Jefferies is now calling for Cllr Stamp to resign – two months after being re-elected – though he accepted that, if Cllr Stamp believed that any wrongdoing had been done, he should have reported it then kept quiet.

“You may ask, should he have complained? Yes, of course, if he really felt there was an issue to complain about, but he should then have kept quiet and let the system do its job and not broken the rules and the law for his own political gain.

“How can the public have confidence in this man if he ignores the rules and the law that are there to ensure a fair hearing? The answer is they can’t, he needs to go.”