The Isle of Wight County Press Online has the story:
CALLS for a Lib Dem councillor to be expelled from the party have been made this week after it was confirmed 37-year-old Adrian Whittaker was alleged to have assaulted a police officer.
The calls were led by Island party vice-president and long-serving executive member Morris Barton. He said: “It is the party’s AGM tomorrow (Friday) and I am sure Cllr Whittaker’s expulsion from the party will be on the agenda. If Cllr Whittaker is subsequently convicted we will be seeking the Isle of Wight Council leader Cllr David Pugh’s support for seeking Cllr Whittaker’s resignation as a councillor.”
The leader of the Isle of Wight Council’s Lib Dems, Cllr Reg Barry, confirmed Cllr Whittaker had been expelled from the group. Cllr Whittaker was elected to the Isle of Wight Council just under six months ago. He also serves on Ryde Town Council and was controversially selected to fight Ryde South for the Lib Dems in place of the long-serving IW Council member Charles Chapman. He beat Mr Chapman, who stood as an independent liberal, by just 12 votes.
Cllr Whittaker will appear befor magistrates on Monday.
11 Comments
Well, makes a nice change from reading about police attacks on peaceful protests, the 1000 deaths in police custody over the last 30 years & the impunity the uniformed thugs enjoy. I’m sure the copper deserved it.
Expelled over an allegation? That seems a bit judgemental. I would have expected them to wait for a conviction. “Suspended pending resolution of the court case” is all this called for.
Is it just me, or does the report not actually say he was expelled?
Expulsion (surely suspension?) from the group is one thing. But expelling someone from the party is a serious business and can’t be done at the drop of a hat.
“Cllr Whittaker had been expelled from the group” is your answer Herbert. Not expelled from the party so far, but expelled from the council group.
Mark
Thank you. I should have read it properly before commenting.
“Suspended pending resolution of the court case” is all this called for.
Possibly – but it might be that there is admitted conduct which, although short of criminal conviction, brings the party into clear disrepute. That could (in theory, though there are difficulties in practice) be dealt with prior to a criminal conviction.
@ColinW – don’t you go on about evidence based policy making? Obviously not when attacks on the police are involved.
@hywel – the police lie all the time. Ask Jan Charles de Menezes, Oh wait a minute you can’t because he has eight police bullets in his head for being brown. And didn;t they tell the truth about that too.
Barton should STFU or back our man against the police.
That’s not policy making by evidence Colin, that’s policy making by anecdote and prejudice. The sort of thing you rail against when it comes to drugs policy.
I note that these comments are based upon a newspaper report and off the cuff comments from members who had no direct or immediate knowledge of what had taken place.
It is a matter of record that the Isle of Wight Executive did not suspend Cllr Whittaker from the party and determined ‘no action should be taken at this time’. This position will be reviewed after the scheduled court hearing.
Cllr Whittaker chose to stand down from the Lib Dem Group on the Isle of Wight Council – he was not expelled, he also withdrew from committees although he continues to represent the interests of his constituents. Similarly Cllr Whittaker also stood down from Ryde Town Council groups where he was an appointed Council representative. All of these actions were voluntary and will be open to review after the court hearing.
hi to all people on here i do not like what this blog is sayen about myself i resinged from the lib group on my own acored i am still a lib dem if any person wishes to know more please fill free to get in touch with me mr barton appoligised the the iw exc as for cllr barry nothing forth comming i am maken a complaint to the standers committee on monday if there is other cllrs on here alll what you are saying is idele and not true it was a simply spiiting incident that hit a police officer and i will take the apropiate action withh any othere cllr on this site thankyou cllr a whittaker