The political fall out from Copeland mayor Mike Starkie’s decision to join the Conservative Party has continued, with Labour councillors having now formally requested his immediate resignation.

Mr Starkie firmly rejected yesterday’s official call from Labour councillors to step down and seek re-election as a result of him having joined the Conservatives in June, a move described by Labour councillor John Kane as “defrauding” the public.

The formerly independent elected mayor said in June that as a supporter of Brexit and the Government’s plans for devolution in Cumbria, he felt the Conservative Government represented the “best opportunity” for Copeland.

But given that Mr Starkie stood as an independent when re-elected as the borough’s elected mayor last year, Labour councillors condemned Mr Starkie’s refusal to immediately resign and seek re-election as a Conservative.

Yesterday’s extraordinary meeting of the council had been requested by Labour councillors, led by Egremont ward councillor Michael McVeigh.

Mr McVeigh was dismissed by Mr Starkie from Copeland’s executive in July, along with another Labour executive member, Councillor Gwyneth Everett, following the original call from both for his resignation to facilitate a by-election.

Yesterday’s meeting was the conclusion of this request, as Copeland council held a formal vote on the demand for Mr Starkie’s resignation.

Conservative Party councillors, along with indepedent councillor Carl Walmsley, did not attend the meeting, which had been reconvened after an initial three-hour session a fortnight ago.

Copeland’s Conservative leader David Moore last week branded the meeting an “expensive farce”, designed to “humiliate” Mr Starkie.

However Mr McVeigh dismissed this suggestion as “shameful”, stressing that Labour councillors were seeking to hold Mr Starkie to account after “betraying the electorate”.

This was something Mr Starkie fiercely denied.

“As I’ve said repeatedly, my manifesto has never changed, not one word of it,” he told the gathered Labour and independent councillors at yesterday’s meeting. But Copeland’s Labour councillors remained resolute in their position that Mr Starkie’s new allegiance with the Conservatives demanded a new vote on his mayoral position.