Today at a meeting of South Lanarkshire Council, Councillors received a report on the outcome of the Standards Commission’s Hearing into Labour Councillor Monique McAdams. The hearing panel formally censured Councillor McAdams after it found she had leaked confidential information for “party-political or personal advantage.”
The Council report detailed seven points of the Hearing Panel’s outcome, using almost exactly the same language. However, it omitted the eighth and final point — a single sentence which said “The Panel further noted that the Respondent had been encouraged to disclose the information by her Group Leader.”
Joe Fagan, the Labour Council Leader was previously suspended for two months for leaking similar information. The SNP’s Cllr Katy Loudon questioned the omission in the report and moved an amendment to place the sentence back into the report.
Margaret Cooper, a member of the Labour-led Administration and Provost of South Lanarkshire, was initially willing to accept the amendment but reneged and rejected it after cries from Labour and Conservative councillors.
A visibly irate Cllr Gerry Convery shouted at fellow councillors: “It’s an item for noting, let’s agree the item for noting, it’s agreed, it’s done, it’s been put forward… aw this nonsense that goes on in this bloody chamber! It’s an absolute disgrace! Let’s get on to the next business and I’m moving that formally.”
After Cllr Convery’s comments, Cooper informed the chamber “I’m not accepting the amendment and we’ll move on.”
Monique McAdams, the subject of the report, commented on social media:
“Provost Margaret Cooper’s insistence in not allowing the amendment … should definitely be queried. In the interests of fairness and transparency an investigation needs to be carried out to find out how this misrepresentation of facts happened. Was this omitted before or after the pre agenda? What officer made this decision or if the decision wasn’t made by the officer, who instructed them?”
Commenting, a spokesperson for the SNP Group said:
“The omission of this clause from the report was glaring, the Panel clearly thought this was relevant information. For anyone watching today’s meeting, it’s clear that something more was going on here.
“Not only did Joe Fagan break the Code of Conduct, he encouraged his group members to do the same. The administration are more interested in protecting their Leader than being straight with the people of South Lanarkshire. This echoes a leaked email by a Labour councillor which described an atmosphere of “secrecy, fear and intimidation” within a Labour Group that is dominated by Joe Fagan.
Cllr Cal Johnston-Dempsey 