BY JACK THOMSON
THE leader of the Labour group has claimed his councillors are “united” and “support each other” — despite two members moving from their base at Renfrewshire House.
Councillors Carolann Davidson and Alison Dowling have shifted out of the elected members’ offices into another room in the building on Paisley’s Cotton Street amid reports of bullying.
Reports have since emerged that an official complaint has been made to the party because of the behaviour of another councillor in the Labour group.
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But Councillor Eddie Devine has denied any division in his group and claimed neither Councillors Davidson or Dowling disclosed a reason for moving offices.
“They have not told us why they have moved,” he said. “As far as I’m concerned, the group is united.
“We work together. We don’t always agree with each other, but that’s normal. None of us has missed any board meetings and everybody has voted the same way.
“If I was to hear anything, which I haven’t, it wouldn’t be me that deals with it.
“It would the group whip, Councillor Edward Grady, who reports to us every Monday and there hasn’t been anything to do with bullying said to me.
“Someone reports to him and they deal with it. If there was anything like bullying, it would be concerning.
“That would need to go to the Scottish Labour Party, but nothing has, as far as I’m aware.
“I don’t see there being a split in the group.
“We all vote the same way, we all have a say, we have all attended our board meetings together and we all support each other.”
The group is already understood to be split into two factions.
Earlier this year, five Labour councillors were said to be disappointed by the outcome of an investigation into alleged anti-Semitic comments made online by Councillor Jim Sheridan last August.
The former MP had a suspension from the Labour Party lifted at the end of January.
A source from the SNP council administration described their main opposition as a “dysfunctional group”.
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They said: “There’s a clear split. Alison Dowling withdrew from all the boards she was on and Labour never ask for their full share of the boards.
“It’s a dysfunctional group and Eddie Devine is trying his best to pull them together, but it’s just not working.
“As an opposition, they’re pretty feeble."
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