A cabinet member has resigned and bosses are facing calls for an independent investigation at Newcastle City Council, after an allegation of bullying against its Labour leader.
The Local Democracy Reporting Service revealed on Tuesday that Newcastle Labour chief Nick Kemp is the subject of a bullying complaint from one of the authority’s most senior directors, Michelle Percy.
It has now been confirmed that one member of the party’s top team in the city has quit his post in response to that news, with rumours circulating that others could follow in the coming days.
Kingston Park South and Newbiggin Hall councillor Alex Hay, whose portfolio included issues including economic development and planning, is understood to have resigned from the council’s Labour cabinet on Wednesday in support of Ms Percy, who is the local authority’s director of investment and growth.
The city council is yet to announce whether it will be launching a full investigation itself into the complaint, with Cllr Kemp understood to have been given a period of time in which to reply to the accusations before any further steps are taken.
It was announced last week that he was taking a temporary leave of absence from the council due to ill health. Cllr Kemp is yet to comment on the allegations.
Colin Ferguson, leader of the city’s Liberal Democrat opposition, said he was “shocked” by news of the complaint and that the council was “sailing into stormy waters”.
The Gosforth councillor demanded an “urgent” probe into the political culture at the top of the authority to “provide much-needed public assurance that the council can deliver effectively”, following numerous concerns having been aired over the past 18 months.
Cllr Ferguson said: “Due process must now be followed. We cannot prejudge the outcome. But after repeated assurances from Cllr Kemp that there were no issues with governance at the Civic Centre, can we really have confidence that all is right at the top? Have opposition concerns, from the contentious changes to audit and standards committees, to political attacks on senior officers, been valid all along?
“We need a separate, urgent independent enquiry to get to the bottom of what’s going wrong with the political culture and to provide much needed public assurance that the council can deliver effectively for local residents.”
Cllr Kemp had previously said last year that there were “no issues around management and governance of the organisation”, amid a furore surrounding the dramatic resignation of one of his cabinet members.
In October 2023, Cllr Jane Byrne quit her role in the council cabinet and made an explosive social media statement in which she accused officers of “undermining” the council, though sources later told the LDRS that she was in fact asked to leave her position due to a “number of internal issues”.
Prior to that, council chief executive Pam Smith had refused to deny the presence of a “toxic” atmosphere and bullying in the administration when she was questioned in front of the authority’s audit committee, with its chair Hamish Moore subsequently writing to Cllr Kemp to share concerns over the council’s management.
In that email, a copy of which has been seen by the Local Democracy Reporting Service, Mr Moore and fellow audit committee member Stuart Green warned of “grave concerns and serious reservations concerning a number of governance issues”.
The pair, who were long-standing independent appointments to oversee the governance and finances of the council, claimed that “some senior executives attending the audit committee are unwilling or reluctant to answer challenging questions openly” and that “rather than having a climate that should welcome and value challenge, we have the very opposite”.
The independent members of both the council’s audit and standards committees were replaced last December, in a major shakeup that saw the two watchdog bodies merged.
Former Heaton councillor John-Paul Stephenson had made allegations of bullying and “thug” behaviour within Newcastle Labour before his term of office ended in May 2023.
Alleged bullying within the party was also cited in the resignation statements of former Labour councillors Habib Rahman, who now sits as an independent, and Shumel Rahman this year.
Cllr Ferguson said he wanted an independent investigation to focus on the political culture within the council leadership and that he was “not so worried about the wider culture [among council officers], though I acknowledge that other people have those concerns”.
Deputy city council leader Karen Kilgour, who is performing Cllr Kemp’s duties during his leave of absence, said of Cllr Hay’s resignation: “On behalf of cabinet, I want to thank Cllr Hay for his work. He can look back on his time as a cabinet member with a sense of great pride.
“Our work doesn’t stop and, as a cabinet, we will continue to work both with elected members, and council officers, to deliver for the people of Newcastle. As I have previously stated, our priority will always be our residents. They are at the heart of everything we do and any decision we take.”
A Labour Party source said that it “takes all complaints very seriously and are investigated in line with our policies and procedures”, however it is understood that the complaint regarding Cllr Kemp has been made only to the city council rather than the party.
Cllr Kemp has sat on the council since 2002 succeeded Nick Forbes as council leader in 2022.
He had himself alleged that he had been undermined by “constant sniping” and “personal animosities” when he quit Mr Forbes cabinet in 2020, at which time Mr Forbes claimed that he had received “a number of complaints about Cllr Kemp’s behaviour”.
