Glasgow Council’s leader has spoken publicly about her husband being banned as a company director.
Susan Aitken said the matter affecting Gordon Archer was “entirely separate” from her work on the local authority and claimed it was a “technical issue”.
She added: “Gordon, I suppose, 'took one for the team' if you like, in order to protect his businesses and his employees.”
Archer was disqualified for six years after an Insolvency Service investigation found he had breached his fiduciary duties by causing a green energy firm he chaired to “enter into transactions to the detriment of its creditors”.
Speaking to the Herald newspaper, Aitken, who is running to lead Glasgow council again, said: “I did know about the dispute that he was in with the Insolvency Service.
“He chose to settle with the Insolvency Service over a technical issue around fiduciary duty - he continues to run a successful business.”
She continued: “He is very clear he disagrees with the Insolvency Service, but decided for the sake of his business that he and his business partner would settle with the Insolvency Service - and that was the settlement they came to.
“The Insolvency Service believed that he and his business partner knew that the business was going into administration; they said they didn't.
“In the end they took a decision and they came to a settlement with the Insolvency Service, that's it, and the business continues to trade.
“He will not hold a directorship for that period,” she continued, adding: “But that is it, it's not for me to answer the business-based reasons why he and his business partner took the decisions that they did.
“It's nothing to do with my job as leader of the council, it's nothing to do with the SNP in any way whatsoever and it's nothing to do with Glasgow city council whatsoever.”
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