A COMPLAINT has been made against Labour’s former parliamentary candidate Nick Bent by two politicians from the party over posts on social media.

Winwick parish councillor Chris Vobe, son of former Warrington North MP Helen Jones, and Great Sankey South borough councillor Amanda King have lodged a complaint alleging that Stockton Heath parish councillor Mr Bent failed to comply with the councillors’ code of conduct.

It relates to comments tweeted by Mr Bent, who has lost out in two Warrington South general election battles, relating to the pair.

Matthew Cumberbatch, Warrington Borough Council’s head of democratic and legal services, as well as monitoring officer, notified Mr Bent about the complaint.

In a letter seen by the Warrington Guardian, dated November 25, he said: “The complainants have stated that they will not pursue their complaint against you if the aforementioned tweets are removed from your Twitter account.

“Following discussions with the independent person, I confirm that if you undertake to remove those tweets the matter can be closed.”

One tweet claims Mr Vobe tried to ‘install’ Cllr King as Labour’s Warrington North parliamentary candidate and ‘get a paid job in her office’ if she secured the seat.

It claims Constituency Labour Party members were ‘horrified about the prospect of this’.

The tweets were posted before Charlotte Nichols was selected as the party’s candidate in the constituency.

On December 2, Mr Bent told Mr Cumberbatch he was ‘surprised and disappointed’ to hear about the complaint and that he is ‘happy to refute it totally’.

In his e-mail, he added: “To me, this looks like a purely malicious and ill-founded complaint, done out of spite because Chris Vobe and Amanda King were defeated and humiliated in an internal Labour Party process.”

Mr Bent said he would be prepared to delete the tweets if three conditions are met.

They include Cllr King publishing a statement on the record stating she never intended to offer paid employment to Mr Vobe, and never would give paid work to him in the future, if she were to be elected as a Member of Parliament in Warrington, as well as Mr Vobe publishing a statement on the record stating he never intended to seek or to hold employment with Cllr King.