Conservative party infighting sees councillor ousted from East Ayrshire group
dailyrecord.co.ukInfighting at East Ayrshire's Conservative group has seen one of their councillors ousted from the party.Councillor Ian Grant was expelled from the local tory group last week as local politicians gear up for council elections in May.The Kilmarnock North ward councillor said the dismissal came as a bolt from the blue and he's been left miffed at the decision that leaves five tories at the local authority.Mr Grant, who is now an independent councillor and is aiming to retain his position on the council in a few months, has accused Conservative group leader Tom Cook and fellow tory councillor Jon Herd of initiating the move against him.In a response to claims made by Mr Grant, councillor Cook and councillor Herd said a meeting was arranged with Mr Grant "to address a number of concerns ".Cllr Grant said: "I'm not going to speculate as to the motives of the very small number of people who were involved in this.
There's only six people in the group, for which I am one."There's two people who could've instigated this and that's Tom Cook and Jon Herd and i'm not going to speculate as to what the reasons might be for doing this."I can only say that it came as something as a surprise to me and has come as a surprise to other people within the party and the council officials."The decision has left councillor Grant, who was elected in 2017, baffled.The tory group met for a scheduled meeting at the end of January and was followed by an executive meeting a few days later.
Councillor Grant says no concerns or issues about him were raised at these summits. Councillor Grant was then invited to an 'extra' group meeting on Friday, February 4 but was unable to attend due to a prior engagement and was informed of that the whip had been
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