Deputy Leader of Cornwall Council suspended from Liberal Democrats
It's over claims about bullying and sharing an email without permission
The Deputy Leader of Cornwall Council has been suspended from the Liberal Democrats for bringing the party into disrepute.
Adam Paynter has been been suspended by the party which means the Liberal Democrat group at County Hall will have to find a new leader.
The ruling also means that Cllr Paynter will not be allowed to stand as a Lib Dem candidate in the local elections in May.
Cllr Paynter, who represents Launceston North and North Petherwin, was investigated by the Lib Dems over claims he shared an email from a party colleague without their permission.
The senior councillor has also been accused of “bullying” as part of the complaints against him.
He was found by the Lib Dems to have brought the party into disrepute through his actions.
The decision by the party’s panel was that he be banned from standing or holding external office as a Liberal Democrat for 12 months; banned from holding office within the party for 12 months; and be removed from the party’s approved list of candidates for 12 months.
The initial complaint was in relation to complaints which were made regarding former Lib Dem councillor Dulcie Tudor over comments she made about protesters outside County Hall.
Cllr Tudor was ordered to apologise after she described a small number of the protesters as the “sinister underbelly of Cornish nationalism”.
However she refused to apologise and was twice sanctioned by the council for her refusal. She has since left the Lib Dems and is now a standalone independent councillor at County Hall.
Amid the process of those complaints against Cllr Tudor she sent a confidential email to Cllr Paynter and other Lib Dem members of the Cabinet.
Cllr Paynter then shared that email with Cornwall Council chief executive Kate Kennally and senior officer Phil Mason – breaching the confidential nature of the email.
In forwarding the email – which the Lib Dem panel said questioned the openness and transparency of the officers – Cllr Paynter included a message stating: “See below. For information, you didn’t get it from me!”
The Lib Dems found that by “abusing the trust” of a fellow councillor Cll Paynter had brought the party into disrepute and broken the party’s code of conduct.
During the complaints process with the Lib Dems Cllr Tudor said that there had been a lack of support from the Lib Dems when she experienced harassment from members of the public.
Cllr Tudor has previously revealed how she was sent abusive emails from people over a number of months. She said that some of these included death threats and said that she had passed them to the police.
Cllr Paynter told the panel that he had forwarded the email from Cllr Tudor because he wanted to help her efforts to secure council funded projects in the Threemilestone area she represents.
However Cllr Tudor said that by passing on the email she felt that Cllr Paynter could have jeopardised the projects.
Cllr Paynter said that he had apologised for passing on the email, but Cllr Tudor said that this apology had been “cursory” and had not been made public.
In its decision papers the party says that Cllr Paynter showed a “lack of contrition” over the incident.
Cllr Tudor said in her statement to the Lib Dems that Cllr Paynter had “colluded with and pressurised other Group Officers and councillors to try and bully me into withdrawing my complaint”.
In a statement Cllr Tudor said: “I am relieved my ordeal in pursuing a complaint against bullying and intimidation by a senior member of the Liberal Democrat Cornwall Council group has reached a conclusion with a judgement (and ruling on an appeal) upholding my complaint which was investigated at national level by the Liberal Democrat Party.
“My complaint was never personal. It was about my ability as an elected councillor to achieve a fair outcome for the people in my electoral division from the highly controversial planning development at Langarth.
“In making their decision, the National Liberal Democrat Party Standards Panel and the Appeals Panel said Adam Paynter’s abuse of trust had brought the Liberal Democrat Party into disrepute and recognised his subsequent actions caused a good deal of harm, distress, and damage, to a junior councillor colleague.
“Any and all councillors should be able to carry out their duties on behalf of the people in their electoral division without fear of bullying and intimidation from senior colleagues and officers. Crucially they should be able to ask questions and scrutinise major decisions that effect people’s lives.
“The final judgement on this matter by the Liberal Democrat National Party in my favour vindicates my actions by standing up for my electorate.
“I would like to move on from this now and carry on representing the people who live in my division with the full co-operation of council officers, consultants and councillor colleagues of all parties.
“That is after all what we are elected to do.”
The Local Democracy Reporting Service has contacted Cllr Paynter but has not yet received a response.
However in a statement issued to a website he stated: “I will be standing down as leader of the Liberal Democrat group but I am not resigning as a Cornwall Councillor or leaving the cabinet or my position as Deputy Leader of Cornwall Council.
“In an attempt to help a former colleague with a matter in their ward, I shared an email with officers of the council without asking permission first, in contravention of proper process. I apologised to the colleague at the time.
"I will be standing in the forthcoming May elections.”
The Local Democracy Reporting Service asked the Lib Dems to comment on what had happened to Cllr Paynter but it declined to give any details.
It said in a statement: “The Liberal Democrats have a robust internal complaints procedure and we will not be commenting on the detail of any specific cases.”
The Conservative group at Cornwall Council responded to the news with group leader Linda Taylor saying: “I must admit to being horrified about the news that has come out today. For a senior person to be suspended by his party it surely takes more than one misdirected email, as claimed by Cllr Paynter.
“It is our understanding that the complaint against Cllr Paynter involved bullying which can never be acceptable and I would ask that full details of the actual complaints against Cllr Paynter are made public.”
She added: “Bullying is never acceptable under any circumstances and the Lib Dems in Cornwall who knew about this behaviour should hang their heads in shame.”