Warring councillors in Prince Philip mourning row

NEWCASTLE’S Liberal Democrats have been accused of “disrespectful” campaigning the day after Prince Philip’s death.

A row has broken out between rivals in Ouseburn, one of the city’s key political battlegrounds, ahead of the local elections.

Labour’s Alistair Chisholm, who is seeking re-election on May 6, has slammed the Lib Dems’ Gareth Kane for delivering campaign letters on Saturday despite other parties suspending activities as a mark of respect for the Duke of Edinburgh.

Coun Chisholm was also left furious at the “exaggerated and rude rhetoric” claim that Coun Kane said he was “the only councillor who speaks up for this area”.

The Lib Dems suspended campaigning on the day of Prince Philip’s death last Friday, but said they “weren’t obliged” to follow other parties in doing so for several days.

Ouseburn is one of just three wards in the city represented by a mix of political parties, currently two Labour and one Lib

Dem, and was decided by a margin of just 12 votes on a dramatic election night in 2018.

The Lib Dems are pushing to tip the balance of power in the ward in their favour, with candidate Stephen Howse out to unseat Coun Chisholm.

In an email to Newcastle Lib Dem opposition leader Nick Cott, Coun Chisholm complained the party was “stretching the bounds of acceptable campaigning in Ouseburn” and called Coun Kane’s letter “disrespectful”.

The long-serving Coun Kane, who returned to the council in 2019 after losing that 12-vote nailbiter a year earlier, responded: “It is very difficult to see what they have actually achieved for the local community in all that time, above and beyond normal duties.”

Conservative Alexander WangEvans and the Green Party’s Daryl Hughes are also contesting the Ouseburn seat.

There are 28 spots on the city council up for grabs – one in each of the 26 wards, plus two further posts in Byker and Chapel.