A DISPUTE has broken out at the city council over a new 'political imbalance' on one of the committees - caused when a councillor defected from one party to another.

The Labour group voiced concerns about political balance on Carlisle City Council's Economic Growth Scrutiny Committee after one of their members - Jo Ellis-Williams - crossed the floor, joining the Conservatives.

A meeting of the committee took place on Thursday and Conservative councillor Jo Ellis-Williams took her seat for the first time since leaving the Labour Party in November.

Councillor Peter Sunter had been sent by the Labour Party to replace councillor Ellis-Williams on the committee as they feel it is unfair that she was selected for the committee as a Labour member but now continues to take part as a Conservative.

Cllr Sunter handed out the following statement in a pre-meeting before the press and public were allowed in the room: "I was asked to attend this scrutiny panel as a substitute for the Labour Party allocated position, it having become vacant when a councillor resigned from the Labour Party.

"Unfortunately, the said councillor is making use of a loophole which allows them to continue in their appointments to panels and committees until a full council meeting changes the named members of the panels and committees, which cannot happen until the January meeting."

The statement went on: "The councillor is occupying a place which had been allocated to the Labour Group in order to give a balanced view to the Scrutiny Panel, a balance based on the number of councillors elected by the people of Carlisle for each of the political parties.

"The said councillor is not just taking a place and a voice of the Labour Party but is then doubling the imbalance by giving that place as an extra to the Conservative Party."

Cllr Ellis-Williams said: "Cllr Sunter is disingenuous in his assertions.

"I had been contacted by the Labour group leader six days before the meeting asking me if I intended to attend; I explained to Cllr Tickner I would be attending and outlined my reasons to him in an email.

"If this had been communicated to him Cllr Sunter would have known I would be attending the meeting; there was no need for him to attend and hand out his pre-prepared and inaccurate statement.

"I have been a member on the EGSP all year and I'm familiar with the scrutiny process required for this committee.

"I am fully committed to scrutinising all of the items on the agenda and representing the interests of all the residents in my Ward as well as the citizens of Carlisle through my questioning and contributions to debate.

"There were considerable items on the agenda, I had already spent time reading all of the papers and preparing for the meeting, there was not sufficient time for a substitute to prepare thoroughly for the meeting."

"The Labour Group regularly fail to replace or substitute their members who don’t attend committee meetings, letting down the people who represent them.

"A quick check of committee attendance on the council website would show this."

Committee places are being recalculated and Cllr Ellis-Williams will be replaced on the committee by a Labour member at January's full council meeting.

Cllr Sunter responded: "There was no inaccuracies whatsoever in my statement. I didn't say in my statement she hadn't been in touch with Cllr Tickner, I said she did.

"A viewpoint from a Tory councillor is very different to the viewpoint of a Labour councillor.

"I would understand someone and I have in the past, moving to being an Independent. I could understand someone moving to a party with the same sort of sympathies."

But Cllr Sunter said Labour cannot understand someone with their viewpoint moving to the Conservatives.

Responding to claims Labour fail to substitute absent members, he said: "The only time we haven't sent somebody (as substitute) is when someone's been unreasonably detained."

He gave an example of a councillor stuck in traffic in Workington, realising they would miss the meeting at short notice.