Standards hearing into WhatsApp scandal begins

The former leader of Tameside council is set to deny allegations that she breached the council’s code of conduct, a standards hearing was told.

Coun Brenda Warrington was the only councillor to show up at the hearing, which looks to put those involved in the infamous ‘Trigger Me Timbers’ WhatsApp group under the microscope. 

The scandal rocked Greater Manchester in February 2025, with group members made up of Labour councillors, Labour activists from Denton and Reddish, as well as MPs Andrew Gwynne and Oliver Ryan. The group chat contained a number of offensive messages and resulted in the suspension of a string of politicians.

Coun Warrington, alleged to have breached the council’s code of conduct, sat in front of the standards sub committee in Dukinfield Town Hall alone.

She listened on as the independent investigator Linda Comstive read through her evidence and findings of breaches by councillors Allison Gwynne, Jack Naylor, George Newton and George Jones, as well as former councillor Claire Reid.

Ms Comstive told the panel how Coun Warrington was the second-most senior political figure in the group behind former MP Andrew Gwynne. This was due to her tenure as Tameside council leader between 2018 and 2022. 

The meeting heard the ex-leader confirming she was an active participant of the Trigger Me Timbers group, using her council-funded phone to do so. The Denton West representative apologised for her conduct during the interview with Ms Comstive and publicly in the build up to the standards hearing last week.

Coun Warrington provided 1,570 lines of chat in the WhatsApp group, the hearing on February 2 was told. This included jibes comparing unnamed members of the Labour group to serial killers Fred and Rose West.

Speaking about the same pair of her fellow Labour members, the report found she said in the chat, “look forward to being a fully fledged member of the ‘we hate *** and *** Club’”. In response, Coun Warrington told Ms Comstive these were ‘tongue in cheek comments’.

Speaking about her interview with the ex-council leader, Ms Comstive said: “She agreed it wasn’t nice but did nothing to stop it. There was mocking and ridicule of a member of the public.

“That member of the public’s face was used as the Trigger Me Timbers WhatsApp group picture.”

The standards sub committee are set to reconvene tomorrow to hear the findings of fact of the other five councillors’ alleged breaches of the code of conduct. There was not enough time left at the hearing for Coun Warrington to set out her case, although she told the panel she is going to deny some of the claims made in the investigation report.

The other councillors are expected to provide their arguments in written statements.

Ms Comstive’s 94-page report details the complaints, extracts from the WhatsApp chat, responses from interviews with four out of six of the councillors and her findings. 

The investigation was prompted following three complaints against the councillors regarding the Trigger Me Timbers’ WhatsApp chat. According to the report, the complainants say comments include ‘racism, anti-Semitism, sexism, hate speech and even threats of violence towards constituents including death’.

Brenda Warrington, George Newton and George Jones all complied with the investigation and were interviewed by Ms Comstive. A whistleblower, who remained anonymous in the report, was also interviewed.

Claire Reid, who resigned as a councillor in December, responded to the questions via email. Allison Gwynne, the wife of outgoing Gorton and Denton MP Andrew Gwynne, did not engage with the process and Jack Naylor did not turn up to his interview with the independent investigator.