CHESHIRE East Council leader Michael Jones has retained his position as the leader of the council after a motion of no confidence in him was overturned. 


Councillors cast their vote on their leader at a full council meeting in Sandbach on Thursday, February 26, with the majority voting in favour of Cllr Jones.

 
The meeting descended into a slanging match with one member of the public being told to leave after she ordered Mayor Wesley Fitzgerald to ‘shut up, you old fart’, and labour councillor Sam Corcoran also being removed from the meeting before later returning for the vote.


The motion, which was referred to as ‘gutter politics’, was proposed by leader of the Labour group Cllr David Newton and in a bizarre sequence of events, was twisted to a motion of full confidence in the council leader after an amendment vote.


Cllr Jones came under attack from opposition councillors who questioned his leadership bringing up ‘twittergate’, the local plan, and bold accusations of personal business failings, but was just as strongly defended by his conservative colleagues. 


Cllr Newton said: “Cllr Jones has energy, drive, resourcefulness, and enthusiasm, but on his watch many council schemes have failed.


“He shouts and other councillors are shouted down and berated. He even undermines his own colleagues. The leader of the council needs to treat people with the respect they deserve.”


Cllr Corcoran, who seconded the motion, was silenced in the meeting after he continued to bring up Cllr Jones’ business history. 


Cllr Corcoran was told the information was ‘not relevant to the motion’ and after he continued, a vote was held in favour of the labour councillor not being heard any longer.


Cllr Corcoran said: “The conservatives still elected him as their leader despite knowing his past.

Michael Jones was the director of a company that went bust.”


Cllr Corcoran was then shouted down and was forced to leave, which sparked shouts from the public gallery of ‘we want democracy.’


The motion was slammed by the conservative councillors who defended the council leader.


Cllr David Brown said: “Our leader deserves a pat on the back, not a slap in the face for the work that he does and we are greatly disappointed in the labour group stooping to these gutter politics.”


The vote for full confidence in Cllr Jones was passed with 43 voting in favour, 13 against, and 13 abstentions.