THE chairman of a local Conservative association has said a group of breakaway councillors should stand down so that Conservative voters “have a chance to elect the Conservative councillors they clearly want”.

Lee R Holmes, chairman of the South Tees Conservative Association, said he had “bent over backwards” to work with rebel Conservative members on Redcar and Cleveland Council who recently set up their own group – the Cleveland independents – with its leader Councillor Philip Thomson stating they wanted to behave “with integrity and not duplicity”.

But hitting back, one of the breakaway group, Councillor Cliff Foggo accused the association chairman of “stirring stuff and trying to cause ructions”.

He said: “Lee R Holmes needs to be a bit careful about how he bandies things around.”

Mr Holmes referenced the “excellent results” in last week’s local elections which saw three new Conservative councillors elected in Guisborough, Hutton and Longbeck wards and the “stunning victories” of Conservatives Ben Houchen and Steve Turner in the Tees Valley Mayoral and Cleveland Police and Crime Commissioner contests respectively.

He said: “Given that they [the Cleveland independent group] were elected as Conservative councillors with the support of both the local Conservative association and Conservative voters… will [they] now behave with integrity and without duplicity and stand down, so that local Conservative voters have a chance to elect the Conservative councillors they clearly want?”

Mr Holmes told the Local Democracy Reporting Service that some of the councillors who had quit the South Tees Conservative Association to move to the new group had “took umbrage” at a suggestion they had to put out a certain number of newsletters each year in order to keep in touch with their ward residents.

An email from the association had spelt out the party’s expectations of the councillors, including contributing to party funds, he said.

Mr Holmes said: “Some of these councillors don’t want to follow Conserative party rules in terms of how they behave as councillors and what they do for their local residents and in maintaining communication with them.

“We are trying to build a long term plan for increasing Conservative representation across the area and for that we need a kind of team spirit, for people to work together and be prepared to do the work for the council and also talk about it and inform their local residents.

“Being a councillor for a particular party means there are rules you have to follow.

“Everything we have sent out as an association has been agreed by me and the executive.”

He added: “There are some issues here and there are some personal grievances involved as well.

“We are obviously extremely pleased with the local election results and those across the Tees Valley and it struck me that it emphasises a lot of voters want Conservative councillors.

“However I don’t expect for a moment that these councillors will resign and cause a by-election.”

Cllr Foggo, who represents Skelton East, said a complaint had been registered with the Conservative Party on behalf of those members who had left the South Tees Conservative Association (STCA).

He said there had been previous instances of local councillors who no longer wanted to sit as a Conservative becoming independent and not being asked to resign.

Councillor Foggo said: “We are actually still members of the Conservative Party and until they follow correct procedure they cannot kick us out of the party.

“The only way we could get away from the STCA was by becoming Cleveland independents, but with a Conservative background.

“I could not work with the STCA set-up, no-one was willing to work with them anymore, having put up with them for so long.”

Cllr Thomson, who was praised by Mr Holmes as a “very dedicated, hard working councillor”, said: “The fact that members moved away from their local constituency and the local parliamentary office was not undertaken lightly and there were sound reasons for that action.”