Andrew Burns flung out of City Chambers

Published on Friday 26 June 2009 10:01

IT IS a dubious claim to fame which Edinburgh's Labour leader will be keen to live down.

But Councillor Andrew Burns has become the first politician in modern times to be thrown out of the City Chambers after accusing city leader Jenny Dawe of being "less than truthful".

Stunned veteran councillors said they had not seen anything like it in 40 years after Cllr Burns was ejected at Lord Provost George Grubb's insistence.

The Labour leader was thrown out after refusing repeated requests to withdraw his comments.

The remark came during a stormy debate about claims that Councillor Gordon Mackenzie had illegally chaired a meeting of council development firm EDI after he had resigned from the role.

A motion to suspend him for the rest of the meeting for "obstructive and offensive" behaviour was tied at 29-29, leaving the Lord Provost to use his casting vote.

Cllr Burns then left yesterday's meeting without protest, to applause from the Labour benches. Cllr Dawe took exception when Cllr Burns challenged her insistence that Cllr Mackenzie had not tendered his resignation to the EDI board. "I am not lying and I ask you to retract that statement," she said.

But Cllr Burns insisted: "I said the council leader was being less than truthful. I stick by that."

He said that official council papers from June 9 stated that Cllr Mackenzie would leave the board with effect from June 23.

The Evening News has seen an e-mail from Cllr Mackenzie's PA to the secretary of EDI asking for Cllr Mackenzie's resignation to be postponed on June 12. It said: "Would you please ensure that Councillor Mackenzie's resignation from the EDI Board is postponed. Councillor Mackenzie intends to resign this year and will confirm the date in due course. This notification supercedes any other correspondence on the matter."

After the meeting, Cllr Burns remained defiant, saying: "There is simply no question that I used the word 'lie' or 'liar' in my comments to the council Leader.

"The council leader had said, in response to an earlier question, that there was no written/signed letter relating to Councillor Gordon Mackenzie's resignation from the board of EDI. There is such a signed document – I have it in my possession – and I responded to the council leader that she was being less than truthful in her response. I stand by that."

Former Lord Provost Eric Milligan supported him, saying: "I have never seen anything like this in all my years at the City Chambers.

"For this to happen in the capital city of Scotland is a disgrace and George Grubb ought to be ashamed of himself for using his casting vote to push this through."

But Cllr Mackenzie said: "We ended up in a situation where we had to suspend Cllr Burns. He was given opportunity to change his wording but he didn't and that is unfortunate."