{"id":415753,"date":"2025-09-11T12:21:11","date_gmt":"2025-09-11T12:21:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/415753\/"},"modified":"2025-09-11T12:21:11","modified_gmt":"2025-09-11T12:21:11","slug":"former-glasgow-labour-leader-blocked-from-committee-amid-standards-probe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/415753\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Glasgow Labour leader blocked from committee amid standards probe"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former Glasgow Labour leader George Redmond has been blocked from joining the city\u2019s planning committee by the SNP and Greens.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Cllr Redmond is facing a standards hearing in November following an allegation he broke confidentiality rules.<\/p>\n

The city\u2019s Labour group had put forward Cllr Redmond to replace Cllr Cecilia O\u2019Lone on the committee, which makes decisions on planning applications, and on the Clyde Gateway urban regeneration board.<\/p>\n

However, Cllr Greg Hepburn, the SNP\u2019s business manager, moved an amendment to prevent Cllr Redmond\u2019s appointments. It passed by 42 votes to 29.<\/p>\n

When asked why they took the unusual step to block Cllr Redmond\u2019s appointments, an SNP source said: \u201cCllr Redmond is currently under investigation for leaking confidential information, which calls into question his appropriateness to sit on these bodies.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m frankly surprised that the Labour leadership have proposed him in the first place, so much for their \u2018new direction\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cllr James Adams, Labour\u2019s business manager, said he was concerned the move would set a precedent, with anyone facing a standards hearing unable to be approved to join a committee.<\/p>\n

It is believed the complaint against Cllr Redmond, who stepped down as Labour group leader in May,\u00a0relates to the sharing of information on the appointment of a new council chief executive last year.<\/p>\n

Susanne Millar was picked to replace Annemarie O\u2019Donnell by the council\u2019s appointment of senior officers committee, which included Cllr Redmond, in March 2024.<\/p>\n

The Standards Commission for Scotland will decide whether Cllr Redmond has breached the councillors\u2019 code of conduct.<\/p>\n

Last week, Glasgow Greens co-leader Jon Molyneux said: \u201cI can confirm that I submitted a standards complaint on April 12, 2024, relating to what I considered to be a very serious breach of the confidentiality provisions in the councillors\u2019 code of conduct.<\/p>\n

\u201cI will not make any further comment on this matter as a hearing is now due to take place.\u201d<\/p>\n

On confidentiality, the code states councillors should not \u201cdisclose confidential information or information which should reasonably be regarded as being of a confidential or private nature, without the express consent of a person or body authorised to give such consent, or unless required to do so by law\u201d.<\/p>\n

It adds confidential information can include \u201cdiscussions, documents, information which is not yet public or never intended to be public, and information deemed confidential by statute\u201d.<\/p>\n

The code also states confidential information should not be used \u201cin any way for personal or party-political advantage or to discredit my council (even if my personal view is that the information should be publicly available)\u201d.<\/p>\n

Complaints against elected members are investigated by the Ethical Standards Commissioner, Ian Bruce, who reports to the Standards Commission. The Commission then decides whether to hold a hearing to determine whether the code has been contravened.<\/p>\n

When a breach of the code is found, the Commission will then decide on a sanction. These include censure, suspension and disqualification.<\/p>\n

A Labour group spokesperson said: \u201cThis is an unprecedented move by the Glasgow SNP and Greens.<\/p>\n

\u201cBlocking councillors from carrying out their duties sets a deeply troubling precedent. The public deserves transparency at full council, not political manoeuvring.\u201d<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for the Green group said: \u201cGiven that George Redmond is facing a standards hearing for a very serious complaint relating to breach of confidentiality, it is unthinkable that Labour thought it was okay to put him forward for a quasi-judicial role on the city\u2019s planning committee.\u201d<\/p>\n

STV News is now on WhatsApp<\/p>\n

Get all the latest news from around the country<\/p>\n

Follow STV News <\/a>Follow STV News on WhatsApp<\/p>\n

Scan the QR code on your mobile device for all the latest news from around the country<\/p>\n

\"WhatsApp<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Glasgow Labour leader George Redmond has been blocked from joining the city\u2019s planning committee by the SNP…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":256915,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7826],"tags":[748,918,4884,712,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-415753","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-glasgow","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-glasgow","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-scotland","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115185640050369978","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/415753","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=415753"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/415753\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/256915"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=415753"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=415753"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=415753"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}