The council meeting that symbolised the true impact of the WhatsApp scandal

A year ago a WhatsApp scandal rocked the eastern corner of Greater Manchester. Now the ugly scars from that deep political rupture are on display for all to see.

The ‘Trigger Me Timbers’ group chat was made up of Labour councillors, members and activists from Denton and Reddish, as well as the local MP. The messages, which span from 2019 to 2022, exposed the deep factional divides within Labour locally, as members mock others in their party and neighbouring MPs.

Gorton and Denton MP Andrew Gwynne was sacked as a government minister on February 8, 2025 for his leading role in the group. After sitting suspended by the Labour Party for almost a year, Mr Gwynne stepped down in January following months of speculation about his future and locals pushing for his resignation – triggering a by-election.

It feels like the true impact of Trigger Me Timbers has sat, like a crocodile, patiently waiting beneath the surface of the water – ready to strike.

Now the beast is really showing its teeth, and evidence of those political fractures revealed 12 months ago were on display this week in the unlikely venue of Dukinfield Town Hall. But it wasn’t a showcase of a hustings with big political heavyweights slugging it out, it was more like a pantomime.

The latest meeting of Tameside council’s standards committee had everything you could ask for in a political pantomime – two warring sides; an animated audience; wooden actors; a venue that makes you feel you’ve gone back in time; and everyone leaving unsure whether they’ve had a good time or not.

Six out of nine of Tameside’s Trigger Me Timbers councillors were brought before the standards sub committee for their participation in the WhatsApp group. The panel was there to decide whether there had been a breach in the council code of conduct by councillors Brenda Warrington, Allison Gwynne, Jack Naylor, George Newton and George Jones, as well as former councillor Claire Reid.

Coun Warrington cut a lonely figure in front of the panel with five empty chairs beside her on February 3. Dressed in one of her signature button-up blazers and armed with binders bursting at the seams with notes, the former Tameside council boss was the only one of the six to show her face.

She was outnumbered as well, with her political opponents sitting just behind her in the public gallery. Coun Warrington even accused some present of masterminding a coup to oust her as leader.

The council investigation was prompted following three complaints against the councillors regarding the Trigger Me Timbers WhatsApp chat.

According to the 94-page report crafted by independent investigator Linda Comstive, the complainants say comments included ‘racism, anti-Semitism, sexism, hate speech and even threats of violence towards constituents including death’.

Coun Warrington took the brunt of Ms Comstive’s interrogation at the meeting, due to her actually turning up, and because she was the second-most senior political figure in the group behind former MP Andrew Gwynne. She was Tameside council leader between 2018 and 2022.

The Denton West representative apologised for her conduct before and during the standards hearing. In the hearing in the town hall, Coun Warrington was lambasted for some of her 1,570 lines of chat in the WhatsApp group and for using a council-funded phone to do so. Her contributions included jibes comparing unnamed members of the Labour group to serial killers Fred and Rose West as well as calling a child an ‘idiot’ and who ‘needs his backside slapping’.

She described some of her contributions to the WhatsApp group as ‘tongue in cheek’ and others as jokes. But she apologised for the offence caused to the public and admitted some of the remarks were in bad taste.

Coun Warrington told the sub committee: “It’s regrettable that some people have been hurt and upset by this. It’s wrong and it was never intended.

“I don’t accept that I can be held responsible for comments made by other people. I apologise unreservedly for anyone upset caused by any comment I made in the chat.”

The Labour councillor claimed she didn’t know her council-funded phone used in the chat was not personally paid for. She also maintained that the chat was private, suggesting those that leaked it hold responsibility for the upset caused as well.

In her epic monologue that lasted for almost two hours, Coun Warrington claimed she had been ‘vilified’ and that the complaints were politically motivated. She suggested it was suspicious that a complaint was logged with the council on February 10, 2025 – two days after the scandal broke on the national news.

The Denton West councillor believed some of those in the room, sat behind her in the public gallery, were responsible for the WhatsApp group being leaked. These are the very same people she accused of being behind her downfall as council leader.

Her lengthy speech, littered with accusations and the accidental naming of the anonymous whistleblower for the investigation, may well have had some merit – but that didn’t matter. As the council-appointed KC James Goudie bluntly put it, most of Coun Warrington’s defence was ‘utterly irrelevant’.

Though this stinging remark from the experienced King’s Counsel silk drew sniggers from Coun Warrington’s rivals in the crowd, it was true. The standards sub committee were there to investigate the complaints made and if the council’s code of conduct was breached – not the motivations of the complaints or why the WhatsApp group was leaked.

Coun Warrington’s final act saw her stick to her guns, claiming the ordeal was ‘unfair’ and that the ‘circumstances and the complexities of what was going on’ were not taken into account.

“There is nothing I can do if you’re not prepared to listen to chapter and verse of where, who, what and why – there is nothing I can say,” Coun Warrington concluded.

Ultimately the verdict of the panel, chaired by Coun Joe Kitchen, found Coun Warrington and the other five councillors from Denton had breached the council’s code of conduct. All five active councillors – except George Jones – have been censured (formal disapproval read out in full council), stripped of their committee roles and are to receive training on the council code of conduct.

Coun Jones will only be censured as a punishment. He was seen as the least culpable of the group, being the most junior politician and having contributed the least to the chat.

Upon delivering the verdict, Coun Kitchen said: “We are appalled, shocked and disgusted by the contents of that WhatsApp group.”

The political panto had it all: drama, tension, accusations as well as gasps and shock from a captivated crowd. Although this council meeting won’t get the same attention as the election night will later this month, it perfectly captured the mood of politics in Tameside right now – fractured and divided.

This pantomime was surely the warm-up act for what could only be a West End show by comparison. The by-election on February 26 is expected to feature all the big political stars and will grab all the headlines from national media.

Nigel Farage, Zack Polanski and Heidi Alexander have already descended on the area, but the build up to the showcase to see who will replace Andrew Gwynne started with fireworks. The stars seemed to have aligned for Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham to make his way back into the big time, but Labour’s National Executive Committee (NEC) blocked from running as a candidate. This only added fuel to what is shaping up to be a huge bonfire of an election.

Many feel this election will be closely contested by the Greens and Reform, with both parties seeing each other as the main rival. Last week the Greens announced Hannah Spencer and Reform announced Matt Goodwin as candidates, but they felt like bigger occasions than Labour’s Angeliki Stogia entering the stage the next day.

This shows just how far Labour have fallen in popularity, given the Gorton and Denton constituency is in a red heartland. It is hardly surprising though, with Keir Starmer’s popularity as leader dwindling every day and the fury sparked by the Trigger Me Timbers scandal.

That WhatsApp chat contained a number of offensive messages spanning from 2019 to 2022.

‘Crackpots’, ‘morons’ and a ‘Grade-A’ w*****’ were just some of the phrases used to describe constituents and colleagues. One grandmother claimed to be a woman branded a ‘Duki hag’ by Gwynne.

This is the same Andrew Gwynne who strolled to victory at the Gorton and Denton seat with a 13,413 majority in the general election of July 2024, winning 50.8 per cent of the vote. The warning signs were there already, with Reform and the Greens came second and third respectively – waiting for their time to pounce.