As if two Labour candidates for Police and Crime Commissioner posts running into problems with past misdeeds wasn’t enough, now a third is set to defy the ban on magistrates standing:
Lee Barron, the Labour candidate for the new post, has revealed how is prepared to refuse to stand down as a magistrate before the election, which will be held in November.
Guidance issued last Friday by a senior judge has effectively barred magistrates from standing for the post, which in Northamptonshire comes with an estimated £70,000 salary…
He said: “I am going to say I am not going to stand down, I am going to carry on”. [Northampton Chronicle]
Many Conservative candidates are also likely to face a problem:
It is thought that the guidance issued last Friday by the senior presiding judge in England and Wales could affect as many as six or seven – a fifth – of the official Tory candidates so far adopted and others who are standing as independents or for other parties.
One of the Conservatives’ leading candidates openly attacked the judge’s ruling on Thursday night. Craig Mackinlay, the frontrunner to become the police and crime commissioner in Kent, contacted the Guardian on Twitter and said: “Massive row developing (about) PCCs and magistrates. I am ‘caught’. Unacceptable and nonsensical. Post election can agree but not pre.”
His intervention came as those affected started to take the first steps to launch a possible legal challenge to Lord Justice Goldring’s decision.
Among the independents affected will be Ann Barnes, who has been chair of Kent police authority for the past six years.
Goldring’s guidance is also believed to ban the dozens of elected councillors who are also magistrates from serving on police and crime panels, which are being introduced to scrutinise the actions of elected police commissioners. [The Guardian]
* Mark Pack is Party President and is the editor of Liberal Democrat Newswire.
6 Comments
Hmm another blow to the policy; I fear that this measure was not very well thought through by the Lib Dem/ Tory coalition and certainly wasnt adequately scrutinised in parliament. You would have thought that civil servants/ government advisers would have considered fully the legality of the measure. I’m not sure how this can carry on if one by one all the candidates are ruled out for one reason or another. Maybe the elections will be delayed?
I agree with the Simon above this really is a complete shambles.
These reports from last week have been superseded by a statement from Lord Justice Goldring on Friday, saying that this part of his ruling should not be “pressed” in respect of the current elections:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/9467875/Judge-backs-down-on-magistrates-standing-as-police-commissioners.html
It’s my understanding the ruling on JPs standing has been (sensibly) reconsidered http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/aug/10/magistrates-police-commissioner-judge-uturn.
interestingly according to that article in the local newspaper if he is elected he will seek to challenge the ruling, suggesting he won’t stand down if he is elected? that still appears to be against the rules.
According to http://www.debretts.com/people/biographies/browse/m/16275/Alun+MICHAEL.aspx Alun Michael is still a magistrate, so he would welcome any U-turn. (He is standing as police commissioner in South Wales.)