Glasgow council: We refuse to review decisions made by Steven Purcell

Published on Sunday 7 March 2010 21:58

GLASGOW City Council last night refused to review any decisions made by its former leader Steven Purcell following revelations about his private life.

• Questions are being asked about what Labour knew of Mr Purcell's indiscretions. Picture: Robert Perry

Calls were made for decisions at the council to be looked at again following revelations that Mr Purcell took drugs and may have been in danger of being blackmailed by a Glasgow criminal gang.

The demands by the GMB union and SNP opponents came just after the former council leader quit as a councillor and reportedly fled to Australia to recuperate.

Mr Purcell, seen as a rising star in the Labour Party, stunned colleagues by unexpectedly quitting as leader of Glasgow City Council on health grounds last Tuesday.

His representatives said he was suffering from "stress and exhaustion".

It later emerged he had been treated at a private hospital specialising in drug and alcohol dependency.

Mr Purcell, 37, has reportedly admitted to friends that he had a drugs problem.

And it emerged that police officers from the Serious Crime Drug Enforcement Agency had visited him in May last year to discuss concerns of possible exposure he may have with a criminal gang he may have been purchasing drugs from.

This led to former Glasgow City Council opposition leader John Mason, now Glasgow East MP, calling for a review of past decisions at the council.

The Nationalist also sparked a furious row with the Labour Party by suggesting that it may have blocked Mr Purcell standing as a candidate because party officials knew of his activities.

Mr Mason said: "The revelations in the weekend press take matters well beyond Mr Purcell's personal circumstances and difficulties.

"We need to know if this is true, and if so, who knew what and when. If it is true, then why did the Labour Party consider it unacceptable for him to be a Westminster by-election candidate, but acceptable for him to continue to run the country's biggest local authority and its huge budgets.

"The Labour Party have to confirm or deny whether a decision to prevent him standing in Glasgow East was because he could have been open to blackmail."

Labour immediately issued a complete denial of the allegation and said that the party had never investigated Mr Purcell or stopped him running for office.

A spokesman said that Mr Purcell had not wanted to be the Glasgow East candidate nor had he applied for other seats since.

The party also accused Mr Mason of trying to "smear" the party and use a personal tragedy for political gain.

"We now expect Mr Mason to withdraw his falsehoods," the spokesman added.

Privately, officials from Glasgow City Council were also angered by what they saw as an "distasteful" attempt to use the sensitive situation for political gain. A spokesman insisted that there was no need to review the decisions made at the council.

"Mr Purcell did not have executive power and did not make decisions on his own," he said.

However, the SNP pointed out that in reality the leader of the council is in a position to push through his decisions through the use of a party whip.