The councillor in charge of a standards committee faces more complaints than any other councillor, it emerged at a meeting held yesterday (Tuesday 27 October).
Labour councillor Daniel Yates, the former leader of Brighton and Hove City Council, is the subject of six complaints.
He chaired the council’s Audit and Standards Committee for the first time yesterday and said: “I am the member referred to in complaints W, X, Y, Z, A and B.”
Each complaint is anonymised in the committee’s reports and referred to by a letter of the alphabet.
Councillor Yates said that, having taken legal advice, that he was declaring a personal interest given that a standards update had been submitted to the committee.
He said, though, that he would not “be entering into any discussion” or voting on the item at the “virtual” meeting of the committee.
The six complaints about Councillor Yates are among 13 to have been made since the previous standards update was prepared for the meeting on Tuesday 21 July.
All six complaints are understood to have been made after Councillor Yates spoke out about the anti-semitism row that led to Labour being replaced as the ruling party in July.
He said: “Politicians often believe that there is a form of words that will cover any eventuality and move things forward. Much of the time, this is true.
“However, it’s also true that words alone cannot address the difficult issues with proper action.
“Today, I am again ashamed of being a Labour city councillor due to the actions of those who would describe themselves as anti-racist but whose actions show them to be otherwise.
“Their actions and my powerlessness to change this makes being a politician an impossible task and brings shame on us all.
“I can only apologise for the hurt fear and betrayal these actions have caused those who we seek to represent and support.
“There is no action I can take to undo this. But I am and will continue to ask those with the power to act to do so. Our city deserves so much better.”
One Labour councillor – Anne Pissaridou – was suspended and two others resigned from the party – Nikkie Brennan and Kate Knight – allowing the Greens to take charge as the largest party on the council.
The row about anti-semitism and the local fall-out attracted more comment on social media, including remarks about the left and right wings of the party and Labour’s new national leader Sir Keir Starmer who replaced Jeremy Corbyn in the spring.
A former local Labour party officer Greg Hadfield tweeted: “I wouldn’t touch @bhlabour with a barge pole if @danieljyates was swimming in the cesspit in which his own shit is floating.
“It’s up to @BHGreens to decide how to deal with the toxicity of Sir Keir’s defecation.”
Councillor Yates replied: “I’m connected to the mains sewerage. Under new management, Keir is pressure washing away the detritus.”
He also tweeted a remark about “three dumb councillors” saying or doing “offensively dumb and discriminatory things – and then two of them run away”.
Mr Hadfield is understood to be one of those behind the complaints against Councillor Yates – as are the three councillors who were suspended from or who left the party.
The standards update report to the Audit and Standards Committee said: “Complaints W, X, Y, Z, A and B concerned a single member and related either to comments that person made on social media or to comments they made in a news article or to both.
“Consideration is currently being given to potentially resolving that matter informally, using the council’s procedure which involves seeking the input of the complainants before making a decision.”
The news report is understood to have been published by Brighton and Hove News.
And the resolution could include an apology which might involve Councillor Yates saying sorry for his choice of words.
Despite chairing the committee, Councillor Yates would not normally be involved in handling complaints.
The committee is responsible for overseeing the standards process for dealing with complaints about councillors rather than resolving individual complaints.
Misleading headline!Should read “Councillor in charge of standards committee faces complaints from suspended colleagues”.
The headline is completely accurate, but without the context that unfolds in the story beneath it. It got me reading the story, and it sounds to me as though Councillor Yates should be congratulated for having the courage to speak out, even if the debate could have been conducted in more elevated terms. If the three other councillors genuinely have complained, they should hang their heads in shame and their complaints should be thrown out.
Good luck to Dan.
Why aren’t Pissaridou, Brennan and Knight under investigation by the Audit and Standards? Surely their social media activity is a breach of the IHRA, which the City Council adopted in 2018?
Why isn’t Cllr Neild being scrutinised for deliberately lying in front of full Council?
Daniel is a hero. He instigated the Council’s adoption of the IHRA definition of antisemitism under the last administration. 1 of the new Cllrs who was suspended then resigned from the Labour Party was outside protesting. They should apologise to him and our Jewish community.
It is remarkable that Mr Hadfield states that he would not touch Brighton and Hove Labour with a bargepole. If this is his opinion, it does raise the question of why he kicks up such a fuss whenever he is suspended from the party as a result of his own behaviour. Perhaps this is a special kind of barge pole. Mr Hadfield would be better off trading the cesspit for the warm embrace of the area behind a bin.
The Labour party are rotten from the top down. The useless greens might not be rotten but the’re certainly totally inept and completely out of their depth
All the parties have a mix of the good, the bad and the downright ugly as far as I can see.
The complaints about Daniel Yates are a waste of time and an abuse of process.
Even though I felt his complaint about Tory Councillor Robert Nemeth was unfounded, I hope that the complaints about Daniel Yates are dismissed as the nonsense they are.