Attempt made to oust county's only Restore Britain councillor from chairmanship of Burnley Council committee
An attempt was made to oust Lancashire’s only elected Restore Britain official from the chairmanship of a key committee at a Burnley council meeting.
Burnley Council heard the case for removing Coun. Don Whitaker from the chairman of the Audits and Standards Committee, with Labour and Liberal Democrat members arguing that Coun. Whitaker has served on the council since 2021, when he was elected as a Conservative politician for the Whittlefield with Ightenhill ward. He won re-election in 2024, but resigned from the party in May this year.
Coun. Whitaker had already been serving in a ‘think tank’ for Restore Britain for some time, working on policy for the party and his recent defection to Restore gave the party its first elected politician in Lancashire.
The head of the Labour group, Coun. Mark Townsend, laid down a motion under the council’s procedural rules to disregard normal practice and move to rescind Coun. Whitaker’s chairmanship of the Audit and Standards committee. Coun. Townsend pointed out that the council had on its agenda for the meeting the appointment of the vice-chair for planning, after last month’s appointments’ council mistakenly picked someone who wasn’t even on the committee.
But the main thrust of his argument was Coun. Whitaker’s new public allegiance to Restore. Coun.Townsend added: “We’ve had issues about the political balance, because over these last six weeks not everyone had signed up to political groups, until about 10 days ago.
“And we’ve had the issue with aligned and unaligned independents that were brand new to the nature of this council that brought a level of confusion to the appointment of Coun. Whitaker.”
During the motion, seconded by Liberal Democrat Coun. Gordon Birtwistle, Coun.Townsend claimed that the Restore representative had been appointed as an unaligned independent, with the support of other independents, when he was actually already affiliated.
Coun. Whitaker, who called the motion ‘gutter politics’ said that he had only been informed of the attempt to remove him a few days beforehand, giving him very little time to prepare his defence, adding: “This is not simply about me, nor is it about party politics. It’s about the standards of governance this council expects of itself, the independence of scrutiny, and the public’s confidence in our decision making.”
He also questioned why the motion had been brought forward in a ‘rushed’ manner, pointing out that the scrutiny committee was among the most important in the council. Coun. Whitaker also said that he treats his chairmanship with the ‘utmost seriousness’ and does not view the role ‘through a party political lens’, questioning what governance issue he presented for the council to consider his removal.
Lib Dem Leader Coun. Howard Baker proposed a motion for the issue to be re-examined and the meeting was adjourned until Thursday, August 6.