LABOUR have accepted defeat and have ended their legal dispute with Glasgow City Council over a councillor who failed to resign from their local authority job after becoming elected.
The court case, which was brought about following the Glasgow North East by-election in November, was due to be held at the end of February.
However, according to The Herald Mary McNab accepted she should have been disqualified and has resigned from her seat ahead of a planned procedural meeting on Friday.
The Glasgow ward will now have a second by-election in less than the last six months in the coming weeks.
In December McNab, who was the newly elected Labour councillor for the ward, was blocked from taking her seat after failing to quit her job with the authority.
The Local Government Scotland Act gives council employees a working day to hand in their notice following an election win.
Following McNab’s Glasgow North East by-election win at ten minutes past midnight on Friday, November 22, she had until midnight 23:59 on Monday, November 25 to quit.
However, she failed to hand in her notice to the local authority. According to The Herald, McNab had consulted a line manager for advice as she had negotiated an early retirement settlement prior to her being selected as a Labour candidate.
It was reported she was concerned about potentially losing her so-called golden goodbye.
Glasgow City Council made clear that neither McNab nor Labour spoke to the Returning Officer or the local authority’s HR team regarding the issue.
McNab’s position was reportedly the first time anywhere in the UK that a newly elected councillor, who was also an employee of a council, had failed to quit their job – leading to senior officials at the local authority seeking legal advice.
It was reported that the council officials were told that even though McNab was disqualified she would still need to resign from her position.
However, she did not.
Given the lack of precedent, Glasgow City Council applied to Sheriff Principal, Aisha Anwar, for a declarator, to get a definitive ruling on the law.
On Friday morning, the case was dismissed with the agreement of both the council and McNab.
A Scottish Labour spokesperson hit out at the local authority and suggested the row stemmed from an “administrative error”.
They told The Herald: “This process has been an insult to local democracy and Glasgow City Council’s response to an administrative error has led to avoidable costs to the public purse.
“We want to avoid more public money being wasted and will be fighting in the coming by-election so that voters in Glasgow’s North East ward get the representation they deserve.”
A Council spokesperson said it was incorrect to suggest that they could have acted in any other way.
They said: “We are pleased this has been resolved without the need to spend time in court.
“The law in this area is largely untested, but it was clear that the successful candidate was not entitled to take up her seat as she was disqualified.
“In the circumstances, a declarator of this disqualification had to be sought from the sheriff principal.
“While matters were ultimately resolved without the need to obtain this declarator after the former councillor resigned, it is incorrect to say that the council could have acted in any other way before now.”
An SNP spokesperson hit back at Labour saying the party continued to “blame everyone else” for their own failures and said they should be instead apologising.
They said: “The only people responsible for this mess, and the resulting cost to the public purse are the Scottish Labour Party who were unable to follow the simple instructions given to all candidates about rules that have been in place for many years.
“The idea that the Council should have turned a blind eye to a breach of electoral law to spare their embarrassment is quite an astonishing position for them to take.
“Instead of continuing to blame everyone else for their failures, they should be apologising to the people of the North East for the disrespect they have shown them.”
