Dudley Council chief denounces motion to oust him as attempt to 'get rid of successful leader'
Dudley Council leader Patrick Harley says he is "humbled" that a motion to depose him was defeated on Monday evening following almost unanimous support from his party.
The extraordinary meeting of the council saw councillors, including Mayor Andrea Goddard, vote 38 to 27 against the motion to remove the Tory leader.
At the meeting, Labour councillor Hilary Bills claimed that she was watching "women being marginalised and attacked".
She also said that seven female Conservative councillors in Dudley had left since 2012 and accused the party of being "unable to manage women".
However, Councillor Harley has denounced the motion as "gutter politics" and an attempt from Dudley's Labour leader to "get rid of a successful leader".
He told the Express & Star: "Obviously it went well. We defeated Labour's motion and 97 per cent of my party backed me.
"I'm humbled by that and I'm not often humbled. I was lost for words. It would have been easy for the party to succumb to the Labour motion but they didn't.
