Council chief 'probably wants to rule the world' claimed deputy

The Daily Echo can today reveal the full details of the investigation into city council leader Richard Williams’ conduct.

Although the results of the inquiry were released last week, dozens of pages of information supplied as part of the investigation had been removed. But now the Echo can disclose the details removed from the original, confidential draft report, which Southampton’s Labour hierarchy had wanted to remain private.

They include allegations that Cllr Williams, pictured below, “shouted like fury” and swore at fellow Labour councillor Keith Morrell as he tried to convince him to go along with a fictional story in a bid to avoid political embarrassment.

The report also hints at what appear to be divisions within the Labour hierarchy, with comments from his own deputy leader, Jacqui Rayment, saying he had lacked “clear leadership” in dealing with the crisis.

She also said he had “huge aspirations” outside of the council chamber to be an MP or an MEP, adding that “he probably wants to rule the world one day.”

The final report made public last week was put together by solicitor Richard Lingard at the behest of council monitoring officer Mark Heath.

The inquiry was launched after the Daily Echo revealed last year that Cllr Williams had misled the public about why Cllr Morrell had resigned from the city Cabinet, only days after he had been appointed.

But the final, 23-page report released last week was a far shorter version of the 85-page document which Mr Lingard had originally compiled and handed in to Mr Heath.

Last week’s report found that Cllr Williams had been “economical with the truth”

and “failed to meet the standards of openness and honesty expected of an elected member”.

Mr Lingard concluded that Cllr Williams had failed to meet national guidelines relating to openness, honesty and leadership, while Cllrs Morrell and Rayment had failed to comply with the guidelines relating to openness and honesty.

The report led the leader to apologise for his actions and admit that “mistakes” had been made about the issuance of the press release.

But there were pages of extra evidence from the draft report that were cut from what was finally released to the public.

Now, after the full draft report was leaked by a source close to the Labour group, the Echo can reveal the additional information which was removed between March 2, when the report was handed in to Mr Heath, and April 17, when the final version was made public.

The draft report contains evidence given to Mr Lingard by Cllrs Morrell, Williams and Rayment, pictured below.

It features accounts of the fallout from Cllr Morrell’s resignation from his position as Cabinet member for efficiency and improvement on May 22.

As part of the investigation, Cllr Williams told Mr Lingard that he had “no inkling” that Cllr Morrell was unhappy until he received his resignation email.

In the email the Coxford councillor said he had struggled to come to terms with the direction the Labour Party was going in, and that he was concerned about his new role.

In the report, Cllr Williams said the resignation was: “out of character” and that he was genuinely bemused, not least because Keith Morrell had been part of the finance policy team for at least the previous seven or eight months, putting the budget and manifesto together.

“His email was ‘an absolute bombshell’.”

Cllr Morrell had first told a council officer of his decision on May 22, with Cllrs Williams and Rayment quickly made aware of the news.

Cllr Morrell’s evidence says that the leader phoned him that evening, saying he was surprised and upset at his decision and that if Cllr Morrell resigned he would also have to step down, saying it would be the end of his political career.

After pleading with Cllr Morrell not to resign, Cllr Williams allegedly told him “You don’t have to do anything – just draw the money”, but Cllr Morrell says he declined.

The report then states that Cllr Williams became “very aggressive” and swore at him, with Cllr Morrell saying his wife could hear him shouting down the phone at him from another room.

He told Cllr Morrell, pictured below, his resignation would be damaging for the Labour Party, that he did not realise what he had done, and asked him to reconsider.

He rang him again on the morning of May 23, with Cllr Morrell saying the leader again became “very angry and abusive”, before suggesting the alternative of resigning on health grounds.

Cllr Morrell said initially he was not prepared to agree to the idea, leading the leader to “shout like fury down the telephone” and say that he would be damaging the Labour Party by standing down.

He said: “This last remark really got to me because I didn’t want to damage the party and I eventually said ‘OK Richard, you run with that’.” That set in action a chain of events which led to the release of the press release by the council’s communications team saying Cllr Morrell had resigned due to “ill health” on May 23.

The release was drafted by the council’s then-senior communications manager, Ben White, on Cllr Williams’ request and was checked by deputy leader Jacqui Rayment, as the leader was at a meeting in London that day.

In his account, Mr White, picture below, said the council leader sounded “quite flustered” when he spoke to him on the telephone about the release, and that when he was asked about Cllr Morrell’s health he said “Keith will be alright”.

Mr White’s account differs from Cllr Williams’ with regard to certain details.

While Mr White said he felt no need to run the statement past Cllr Morrell as it was not council practice to have releases cleared “by committee”, Cllr Williams said he believed at the time it should have been run past Cllr Morrell.

Mr White, who left the council last year, is quoted in the draft report as saying he believed the Labour group had failed to admit that they knew just how bad the city’s financial situation was, with the result that they had over-promised in the run-up to the 2012 council elections.

He added that there was a perceived “degree of disagreement”

within the group, as evidenced by the resignation of Stephen Barnes- Andrew from the shadow Cabinet, weeks before the election.

An urgent Labour group meeting was held on May 26 where, according to Cllr Morrell in the draft report, Cllr Williams said he would “put his hands up, be honest about what had happened and admit that he had compounded the problem by not owning up” at an extraordinary council meeting on June 25.

At the extraordinary meeting Cllr Rayment said that she should have paid more attention to the release when she was given it to check, and apologised. But the draft report quotes Ben White as saying that her statement “lacked all credibility and was nothing more than a desperate excuse.”

He added that she had made a subtle amendment to the release – taking out a reference to “losing”

Cllr Morrell – before it was sent out. He also said he felt he had been “duped”.

Talking to Mr Lingard about the fact that she had to check the press release in Cllr Williams’ absence, Cllr Rayment said: “I do think the leader should have been here to deal with his own s***.

“I was cross with him in council, not for lying because I don’t believe he did lie, but he should have just apologised for the bad way in which the matter was handled – by me for the sign off, by him for not showing clear leadership and I do think that comms had a part to play....they should have shown the draft to Keith and they should have emphasised to me the importance of the press release which I don’t think I understood.

“I don’t think I gave it the attention it deserved and they should have picked me up on that.”

According to the draft, she also told Mr Lingard: “Cllr Williams has huge aspirations. He plays in Brussels; he’s always in London; he wants to be an MP; he wants to be an MEP – he probably wants to rule the world one day – that’s his personality.

I think he would have seen this as a huge problem for himself.”

In response to questions about her comments on Cllr Williams’ leadership, Cllr Rayment said: “To say that the learning curve is steep would not be an understatement.

We had at this point only been leader and deputy for six days; we were still trying to get to grips with getting a desk to work from.

“As leader and deputy leader, we are a team. We both bring different strengths to our partnership.

“Privately I have suggested to Richard that he could’ve been more visible at the time this happened.

“It was a difficult period keeping the home fires burning whilst Richard was making crucial progress on longer term plans for our city.” And in response to questions about her comments on Cllr Williams’ ambitions, she said: “We would question if the leader of the council didn’t have ambitions to represent our city in Parliament.

“Only by delivering for this city would Richard be able to go on to recognise those aspirations.”

Cllr Williams was repeatedly asked to comment but did not provide one.

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