{"id":725500,"date":"2026-01-28T03:17:17","date_gmt":"2026-01-28T03:17:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/725500\/"},"modified":"2026-01-28T03:17:17","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T03:17:17","slug":"city-councillor-leaves-labour-group-after-police-charge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/725500\/","title":{"rendered":"City councillor leaves Labour group after police charge"},"content":{"rendered":"

Joe Hanson will appear in court next month\"Cllr<\/p>\n

Cllr Joe Hanson(Image: Liverpool Echo)<\/p>\n

A veteran Liverpool city councillor charged <\/a>following an alleged altercation last Autumn has left the Labour group. It was revealed last week how senior councillor Joe Hanson had been charged with a public order offence and will appear in court in February.<\/p>\n

Cllr Hanson, who represents the Kirkdale<\/a> West ward, was charged after a reported incident on September 4 last year. He is set to appear before South Sefton<\/a> Magistrates\u2019 Court in Bootle<\/a> on Thursday, February 5.<\/p>\n

Liverpool Labour sources have confirmed Cllr Hanson, from Walton<\/a>, has left the council group. He will also step aside from his role as chair of one of the authority\u2019s scrutiny committees.<\/p>\n

Cllr Hanson was first elected to the city council 26 years ago and served until 2008 before returning in 2012. In a statement last week, Merseyside Police confirmed he had been charged.<\/p>\n

\"Cllr<\/p>\n

Cllr Joe Hanson(Image: Liverpool Echo)<\/p>\n

A force spokesperson said: \u201cJoseph Hanson, 75 years, of Rawcliffe Road in Walton, has been charged with using threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour with intent to cause another harassment, alarm or distress.<\/p>\n

“He will next appear at South Sefton Magistrates Court on 5 February.\u201d<\/p>\n

The force has confirmed the charge follows a reported altercation between two men following a meeting, which took place at a caf\u00e9 on Great Mersey Street.<\/p>\n

It is understood the alleged incident happened at the Rotunda community centre.<\/p>\n

A Liverpool Labour group source has now confirmed the Kirkdale West member will step aside from the group.<\/p>\n

They said: \u201cCllr Hanson has offered to step aside from the Labour Group, pending the outcome of his case, and we have accepted.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sources have also confirmed Cllr Hanson will step down from his role as chair of the city council\u2019s sustainable, safe and thriving neighbourhoods committee.<\/p>\n

Cllr Hanson said he plans to defend himself in court.<\/p>\n

As a result of Cllr Hanson\u2019s decision, Labour now has 58 out of 85 members on the city council.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Joe Hanson will appear in court next month Cllr Joe Hanson(Image: Liverpool Echo) A veteran Liverpool city councillor…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":725501,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8815],"tags":[748,393,4884,30754,528,179,14487,16,15,9597],"class_list":{"0":"post-725500","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-liverpool","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-kirkdale","12":"tag-labour-party","13":"tag-liverpool","14":"tag-liverpool-council","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom","17":"tag-walton"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115970562342961331","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/725500","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=725500"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/725500\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/725501"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=725500"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=725500"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=725500"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}