Defiant Steve Eling not stepping down as Sandwell Council leader despite party suspension
Defiant Steve Eling said he is not standing down as council leader – despite being suspended from the Labour Party last week.
It was business as usual as Councillor Eling chaired his first Sandwell Council cabinet meeting on Wednesday which lasted just under six minutes.
It was his first council meeting since news emerged last week that he had been suspended pending further investigation by the party's ruling National Executive Committee (NEC).
Shouts from the public gallery at Sandwell Council House asked Councillor Eling when he would resign as leader of the council – but he did not respond to their calls and made no reference to the controversy during the meeting. Security were called in to remove the public from the gallery once the meeting had finished.
Speaking to the Express & Star after the short cabinet meeting, he said: "I am not intending to stand down as council leader at the moment. I am appointed by the council as council leader, not the party.
"I am certainly not going to be pressured out of office by people who scream and shout in the public gallery."
When asked if he had any comments on his suspension, Councillor Eling said: "I know nothing, I have been given no information at all."
It comes as Halesowen and Rowley Regis MP James Morris has called for him to step down immediately while investigations into him are ongoing.
Mr Morris said: "Astonishing that a Sandwell Cabinet meeting lasted just five minutes and 50 seconds with Councillor Steve Eling still acting as leader – Labour councillors are just sitting by and hoping someone else does something to end this chaos while Eling acts like a squatter with no authority."
