Brent councillor James Powney laments the threat and use of legal writ to silence debate, tending towards an environment where ‘legitimate freedom of speech could be restricted by self censorship.’

Legal writ has its strength though. When Brent Labour distributed a leaflet with false claims about Sarah Teather, the Brent Leb Dems took appropriate legal measures. In the face of the legal action, Labour have now admitted their story was false and agreed to pay the Lib Dems legal costs.

Dawn Butler, Ann John and other Brent Labour members have all signed a written apology to Sarah Teather.

Sarah Teather does not need to make up claims about Dawn Butler and her expenses. Dawn Butler’s £66,000 expenses claims are a matter of public record.

More on Atiq Malik, independent candidate in Brent Central, on this weeks WBTimes front page. They don’t disclose the nature of the allegations against him for ‘legal reasons’ and the internet isn’t throwing up rumours for me to link to, not even on Labour Cllr James Powney’s blog – although there is a great archive of items on Atiq Malik’s views on women and optioning aspects of Sharia Law for UK Muslims.

WBTimes carry a statement from the Standards Board that they had received a referral from Brent Council’s Standards Committee on the 24th March. However there are “No documents are available for [the] meeting”  of the Committee on the 24th March online a month after the meeting.

Inquiry into candidate

Brent’s Labour Group formal apology for issuing leaflets with defamatory claims about Sarah Teather is on page 4 of the WB Times this week.

Dawn Butler apologises to Sarah Teather