Local councillors in the news: Barnet and Stoke

Via Liberal England we have:

Golders Green Tory Christopher Harris has been travelling Down Under since July on an “extended holiday” but has still managed to hang on to his job.

Despite being 10,000 miles away in a country with a 10-hour time difference, Cllr Harris is still claiming more than £800 a month in a council allowance to serve residents.

And then via Pits’n’Pots:

Mike Barnes’s future as Labour Group Leader [in Stoke-on-Trent] hangs in the balance as the party’s National Executive have placed him under ‘administrative suspension’ with immediate effect.

Yesterday, Mike Barnes admitted to impersonating someone from this website to try and find information about a rumoured news story in Cheshire West and Chester council.

A BBC investigation has concluded that Barnes told a member of the communications department at Cheshire West and Chester council that he was representing a news website in Stoke-on-Trent. He also admitted that he used a false name.

Barnes denies claiming that he was from BBC Radio Stoke but admitted to me yesterday that he had claimed to represent Pits’n’Pots and in doing so he used a false name.