Lib Dem councillors suspended after backing BNP member for key job

The Liberal Democrats have suspended two councillors who backed a BNP representative for a key local position and then refused to apologise. The party initially said it would let the matter rest because John Jones and Jeff Sumner, from Lib Dem-held Burnley council, had admitted they were wrong and undertaken not to support members of the far-right group again.

But after the men told the Guardian that they had no regrets about voting for BNP councillor Sharon Wilkinson - rather than her Labour rival - to join the board of a publicly-funded regeneration initiative, the party's president issued a further statement.

"In the light of the comments reported today, councillors John Jones and Jeff Sumner have been suspended from membership of the Liberal Democrats [pending investigation]," Simon Hughes said.

The council leader, Justin Birtwhistle, had already said he would discipline the men following their remarks.

"She [Ms Wilkinson] is a good councillor. I can't afford to be biased against a certain party if they're doing the business for their ward members," Mr Jones told the Guardian earlier today. "Most parties have their faiths, tenets and beliefs. They [the BNP] are to an extent extreme at the national level, but I think she speaks sense most of the time."

Asked whether he had promised not to vote that way in future, he replied: "Bullshit. I vote the way I want to vote and as far as I'm concerned I'm an asset to the Liberal Democrats. We did have words about this, but I certainly wasn't told it was the party line and never to do it again. I wouldn't have agreed to it."

In a letter to a local paper, Mr Jones also argued that Labour was "over-represented" on the board of Padiham Life.

Mr Sumner said: "I voted for Sharon Wilkinson because I thought - and still do - that she was the right person for the job. Politics shouldn't come into it. If the vote was again tonight, I would vote for Sharon again." He added: "I don't think she's a very racist person."

In their original statement, the Liberal Democrats said: "The actions of the two councillors are not in any way indicative of any support of any element of the BNP's platform."

They added: "After this incident the council group leader, Cllr Birtwistle, spoke to Cllrs Jones and Sumner and explained to them that this was conduct not becoming of an elected Liberal Democrat representative. They wholly accept that analysis and undertake that their votes will never be used again in such a way as to be open to any form of misrepresentation as support for the BNP. Fortunately in the event the two votes cast had no bearing on the outcome and the BNP councillor was not elected. No further action was taken because they wholly and swiftly accepted that they had behaved wrongly."

Guardian