Wandsworth Council have finally opened their eyes to the ongoing fraud scandal at Wandsworth Conservatives. This statement was put out last night:
COUNCILLOR ROBERT MORRITT
Ravi Govindia, leader of Wandsworth Council, is to ask the next ordinary meeting of the Council to stand Councillor Robert Morritt down from all Council committees, following the publication of a series of allegations concerning his period as Conservative Party agent, prior to his election as a councillor.
Councillor Govindia says: “I have been disturbed to read a series of allegations in recent days concerning Councillor Robert Morritt. All the allegations concern his alleged activity before he became a councillor, and none concern council taxpayers’ money, but I believe it is essential to get to the bottom of what has happened. I do not wish to distract from the vital work of the council committees that he sits on and will therefore ask the next ordinary Council meeting to suspend his membership of them.”
Councillor Morritt is a member of Wandsworth Council’s Finance and Corporate Resources Overview and Scrutiny Committee, General Purposes Committee, Adult Care and Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee, Joint Staff Committee, Chief Officers Joint Consultative Committee and Standing Advisory Council on Religious Education.
Guido will look into some of the detail included here later, but there are conflicting reports over whether the Tories have suspended the whip as well. Guido understands that senior figures in the local party have begged Morritt to resign, but he is digging in and refusing to go. He’s currently still the Deputy Chairman of Justine Greening’s constituency of Putney…
Mark Elliott, Chairman of Putney Conservatives and Ravi Govindia, the Leader of Wandsworth Council are on holiday this week, which has slowed things down. Either way it’s clear to see that the original statements put out by Wandsworth Tories accusing Guido of lying and making this scandal up were woefully inaccurate…
You can read the full background to the suspension here.
