Warren Bradley, leader of the Liberal Democrat group in Liverpool, has stood down as leader today after allegations about forgery on election paperwork for this May’s council elections.
As the Liverpool Echo reports,
His leadership was plunged into crisis after revelations today that he had witnessed an election nomination for his teenage son Daniel for the forthcoming local elections.
The candidate himself must also sign the form but the teenager has said he did not want to stand and that his own signature on the form is “a fake”.
The revelation leaves Cllr Bradley, 44, facing questions as to who he witnessed signing the official paper.
Warren Bradley himself said in an email statement,
I cannot say too much at this stage for obvious reasons, but to inform you I totally deny this allegation and am seeking legal advice to that end.
North West region Liberal Democrats are investigating the case to see if disciplinary action would be appropriate. The regional party said,
An incident was reported to the regional party and we have started an immediate investigation. We will continue to work with all the other authorities involved.
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9 Comments
Wow. New levels of bizarre and unbelievable.
The man has been a liability for years. I guess this is his swansong.
odd that just a little while after he does after Clegg this happens…it seems that there is still fire in Lib Dem HQ after all.
He made himself look like a dangerous idiot to everybody, not just the party HQ. Why give them credit for what was obviously a team effort?
Amazing! You really couldn’t make this up! MBoy is right: Bradley has been a liability for years. He’s been fortunate to have held on to the leadership for as long as he has, especially following last year’s catastrophic local elections (for which he can’t blame the coalition government). The Lib Dem election strategy in Liverpool left a lot to be desired.
He famously likes a rant and the recent outburst condemning Nick Clegg and talking of the party being consigned to the annals of history will have done him no favours. It demonstrated the level of his strategic expertise: get your excuses in early and blame everyone else for your problems.
It’s surprising that having survived for so long it’s an apparently fake signature that’s forced his resignation. I would have imagined Bradley would have had slightly higher professional standards. But I’ve come to expect the bizarre as far as Liverpool and Bradley in particular are concerned.
Conservative – I imagine this has absolutely nothing to do with Lib Dem HQ and a lot to do with what’s going on much closer to home.
@Andrew Page
“But I’ve come to expect the bizarre as far as Liverpool in particular are concerned.”
What exactly do you mean by that?
Oh dear me dropped in it by your own son, could it get much worse for him. Hopefully with a decent Council Group Leader Lib Dems in Liverpool can start to recover (ok maybe after May’s elections)
Bradley only just survived a vote of no confidence against him as leader last May. A shame he couldn’t have gone then, this won’t do us any good in Liverpool in what was already going to be a very tough cycle for us there.
@ James. I mean in relation to the Liberal Democrats in Liverpool. Having looked just over a year ago set to make huge gains and take at least one Westminster seat, the Lib Dems unfortunately shot themselves in the foot by employing the wrong tactics while the group leader (Mr Bradley) stumbled from one crisis to another. It would be laughable if I wasn’t a Lib Dem myself. Eighteen months ago I had nothing but positive expectations of what we could achieve in Liverpool, but now – as I say – I am not surprised by unprofessionalism and negativity that would have been unthinkable a short while ago.