A Salford councillor is defying the city mayor’s call for him to resign following his shock election to another authority 160 miles away.
Coun Chris Twells has been a Liberal Democrat representative in the Orsdall ward since his election last year. Coun Twells, 31, stood in the Tetbury with Upton ward for Cotwold District Council in Gloucestershire in May, and beat the sitting Conservative candidate by 60 votes.
In a bizarre twist, he now sits on TWO councils and has been suspended from Liberal Democrat Party while an investigation takes place, effectively making him an Independent in both Salford and the Cotswolds.
At Wednesday's Salford city council meeting, city mayor Paul Dennett ramped up the sarcasm when he said: “It would be remiss of me not to give a very special congratulations to the Salford Liberal Democrats for their one and only gain of the election… not in Salford but in Tetbury, in the Cotswolds. READ MORE: Join the FREE Manchester Evening News WhatsApp community “The dedication he showed to upturning the Tories in the Cotswolds was indeed admirable - and he now becomes the first councillor I have ever heard of who holds two council seats simultaneously, 160 miles apart.” And he continued: “Before this election, I had not been aware that this practice was entirely legal.
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