A SUSPENDED Tameside councillor has blasted the Labour Party for ‘throwing him under the bus’ amid the Andrew Gwynne WhatsApp controversy.
Vincent Ricci is one of 10 – including two former leaders – sidelined by the national body as it probes comments made the Trigger Me Timbers group.
Eight from Denton, including Denton North East Cllr Ricci, are currently sitting as Independents as action is taken over seemingly sexist, racist, misogynistic and antisemitic statements.
Mr Gwynne was sacked as a health minster and suspended by Labour, as well as Burnley’s Oliver Ryan, who was a councillor for Audenshaw.
But even though he claims he will be cleared, Mr Ricci – chair of Tameside Council’s Speaker’s Panel (Planning) committee – has hit out.
He told BBC Northwest Tonight: “I’m so annoyed and frustrated at the Labour Party because it won’t listen to me.
“I’ve told it I’ve got no input whatsoever and its response is ‘Well that’s OK then, you’ll be completely exonerated,’ – which I will be, 100 per cent.
“But it’s the damage from being suspended to when they get around to exonerating me that I won’t be happy about.
“I feel I’ve been treated absolutely disgracefully. 49 years’ service. What do they want us to do, not take it to Labour Party headquarters not speak to anybody, not out them and let it all carry on?
“It’s disgraceful. I haven’t thrown the Labour Party under the bus, they’ve thrown me under the bus.”
Former Tameside Council leaders Cllrs Brenda Warrington and Gerald Cooney – with his suspension believed to relate to media ‘leaks’ – are among those currently out of the Labour group.
Cllr Ricci publicly named another, Denton South’s Claire Reid, as administrator of the Trigger Me Timbers group.
He also claims Mr Gwynne and Labour ignored his complaints over it as he lives with being compared to the more active members and being branded ‘scum’ and ‘corrupt.’
He added: “The group was going down a path it wasn’t there for.
“I didn’t get any response from him (Mr Gwynne) but then on April 7, 2022, we were removed from the group by the administrator, Claire Reid.
“I was taken off it because we’d spoken about it, that’s my belief.
“I don’t know, you’d have to ask them (Labour). The only thing I can think is it was too damaging, so they wanted to try and hide it, that’s the only thing I can thank. I haven’t a clue.
“People out there are tarnishing me with the same brush as the people who’ve made homophobic, racist, disgusting comments and I don’t want a part of it.”