‘Trigger Me Timbers’ group member appointed to standards committee

A suspended councillor, who was part of the widely criticised ‘Trigger Me Timbers’ WhatsApp group, will sit on Tameside council’s standards committee.

That group’s job is to promote and maintain high standards of conduct by councillors.

But the authority’s Conservative group has now questioned why Coun Brenda Warrington has been appointed to the standards committee, given she has been suspended for her conduct by the Labour Party.

A former council leader, she was one of 11 councillors and two MPs suspended over the shocking messages leaked from the WhatsApp group.

Named ‘Trigger Me Timbers’, it was made up of Labour councillors, members and activists from Denton and Reddish, as well as the local MP Andrew Gwynne. Its members remain suspended by Labour. 

Coun Dan Costello has suggested Coun Warrington is unfit to sit on the standards committee as she has failed to uphold proper standards herself. 

Speaking at the latest town hall meeting in Dukinfield, the Conservative councillor tonight (May 20) said: “Many of you will remember Coun Warrington was the executive leader and her conduct in this very chamber was so bad it forced her own party to remove her from office. But that could be a matter of opinion.

“What isn’t a matter of opinion is that the councillor is currently suspended from her party. She is suspended for her involvement in the now infamous ‘Trigger Me Timbers’ WhatsApp group. 

“‘Trigger Me Timbers’ was a WhatsApp group where councillors, MPs, Labour activists and, most abhorrently, members of the public were mocked and abused.

“The content of that group has been widely shared in various news outlets and I don’t think anyone would describe it as anything close to high standards of conduct.

“In the transcripts from that group Coun Warrington has over 1,500 contributions. These contributions include descriptions of people as ‘idiots’, ‘stupid’, ‘peevish’ and even as ‘bonkers’.”

Although Coun Costello admitted there was ‘no constitutional reason’ Coun Warrington couldn’t be appointed to the committee, he questioned why she should be.

Labour’s Coun Joe Kitchen, chair of council business, clarified those matters are currently being investigated and have not yet concluded.

The meeting at Dukinfield Town Hall still approved Coun Warrington to be one of the appointments to the standards committee.