You can't make this stuff up... standards complaint against LIBERAL leader Steve Radford

By David Bartlett on Feb 19, 09 11:29 AM

There's a saying that when one door closes another one opens. Maybe the same should be said for ethical standards complaints in Liverpool.

No sooner than the Standards Board for England have cleared council leader Warren Bradley, Liberal leader Steve Radford find himself the subject of a local standards investigation.

The case centres around Cllr Radford being called a Liberal Democrat and not a Liberal by Operation Black Vote (OBV) officials.

Cllr Radford, whose Liberal party controls Tuebrook, is a fierce defender of this party and is often happy to point out the differences between his party and the Lib-Dems.

My colleague Marc Waddington has the full story on his blog, which can be found here.

The row bubbled over when Cllr Radford attacked the organisation's "stupidity" in writing to him at the Lib-Dem headquarters in Wavertree rather than the Liberal HQ in Tuebrook.

He told OBV: "If you can't respect my role as leader and president of the Liberal Party do not write to me at all".

OBV then told Cllr Radford he was at times "neither decent or polite" and that his rudeness "would not be tolerated".

Its director Simon Woolley wrote to Cllr Radford to say the matter would be referred to his party officials, but the Electoral Commission-funded organisation addressed the complaint not to the local Liberal party, but to Liberal Democrat council leader Cllr Warren Bradley and ex-leader Cllr Mike Storey.

You couldn't make this stuff up.