Boris and the Tories get first Legal Complaint

You may have read the statement by Richard Barnes and Len Duvall in The Telegraph today,

This is the formal complaint going into the Standards Board tomorrow - Boris has been in power just a day and already the Tories are breaking the law and the Code of Conduct ;



From ; Richard Barnbrook,

BNP GLA member.

4th May 2008

Re ; Official Complaint

The Standards Board for England
1st Floor, Cottons Centre
Cottons Lane
London
SE1 2QG

CC ; Boris Johnson

Standards Board for England

Head of GLA staff



Sir,

This is a formal complaint concerning the statements made by Richard Barnes and Len Duvall in The Telegraph newspaper 4th May 2008 where both assembly member individuals have made statements expressing their intention to breach personally and as party political groups both the GLA Code of Conduct for GLA assembly members and to incite, assist, support and facilitate GLA staff members to breach the Code of Conduct for GLA staff ;

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/boris_johnson/1924867/BNP-man-to-be-shunned-in-assembly.html

“ Each assembly member is entitled to two staff to perform research and secretarial duties. Traditionally, these are non-political civil servants recruited from an internal pool.

But Richard Barnes, the Conservative leader on the 25-member assembly, said: "The BNP will have problems finding secretaries and getting support from the staff here, and I will totally support people's right to say they don't want to serve them.

"They may have a foot in the door but they won't get anywhere near the levers of power."

Len Duvall, the Labour group leader, said: "They are going to have to go and get their own people. Richard Barnbrook will have pariah status."

The statements of Richard Barnes and Len Duvall are breaches of the Code as below.

There are 12 clear breaches of the Code of Conduct for GLA members and we are therefore making a formal complaint regarding each of these 12 breaches of the Code of Conduct as follows ;



GLA Code of Conduct Provisions ;





Introduction and interpretation


1. —(1) This Code applies to you as a member of the Greater London Authority (“the Authority”).


"Member" means the Mayor of London, the Deputy Mayor, members of the London Assembly and includes: a co-opted member and an appointed member; a co-opted member of a committee or sub-committee or advisory committee or advisory sub-committee of the Assembly. In this Code, the term co-opted member has the meaning given to it by section 49 of the Local Government Act 2000, and the Independent Members of the Standards Committee shall be regarded as co-opted members of the Authority.


(2) You should read this Code together with the general principles prescribed by the Secretary of State, which are as follows:

Selflessness

You should serve only the public interest and should never improperly confer an advantage or disadvantage on any person.

BREACH 1 - This requires that the assembly member must not seek to act in any way in such a way as defined as in conflict with selflessness in that an assembly member is disadvantaged and that the public interest, and the interests of the members of the public who voted for them, are disadvantaged.




Honesty and Integrity

You should not place yourself in situations where your honesty and integrity may be questioned, should not behave improperly and should on all occasions avoid the appearance of such behaviour.

BREACH 2 - This honesty and integrity requirement requires that assembly members must not incite, assist or facilitate any assembly members, assembly staff or contractors employed by the GLA to act in a way that is in breach of their requirements under the GLA Code of Conduct. This also applies to inciting assembly members to shun, victimise or harass other assembly members. Such behaviours are improper, an abuse of power and lack due integrity.



Objectivity

You should make decisions on merit, including when making appointments, awarding contracts, or recommending individuals for rewards or benefits.

BREACH 3 - This objectivity clause requires than an assembly member acts in the interests of the Public, the GLA and the public interest at all times, and not act in a sectarian and biased political manner in relation to the allocation of GLA, staff, offices, facilities and other GLA provisions.





Respect for Others

You should promote equality by not discriminating unlawfully against any person, and by treating people with respect, regardless of their race, age, religion, gender, sexual orientation or disability. You should respect the impartiality and integrity of the authority's statutory officers, and its other employees.

BREACH 4 - This respect for others clause requires that the GLA assembly members act in accord with the Equality Act 2006 section 33 and the Employment Equality Regulations 2003 as amended by Section 77 of the Equality Act 2006 which came into direct legal effect on the 6 th April 2007.

This means that employers and institutions such as the GLA are required to protect employees and officials against bullying or harassment suffered in the workplace (i.e. violating an individual’s dignity or ‘creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment’ for an individual) because of their religion or belief.

The Religion or Belief Regulations apply to discrimination and harassment on grounds of religion, religious belief or philosophical belief. They cover discrimination and harassment on the grounds of perceived as well as actual religion or belief (i.e. assuming – correctly or incorrectly – that someone has a particular religion or belief). The Regulations also cover association, i.e. being discriminated against on grounds of the religion or belief of those with whom you associate (for example, friends and/or family).

The Regulations apply to recruitment, terms and conditions, pay, promotion, transfers and dismissals.

The beliefs have to be read in accord with the Human Rights Act 1998 and also rights as defined under ECHR Article 14 which explicitly states that the rights under Article 14 apply to political discrimination ;

“ The enjoyment of the rights and freedoms set forth in this Convention shall be secured without discrimination on any ground such as sex, race, colour, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, association with a national minority, property, birth or other status.”




The Code of Conduct for the GLA assembly members also states that at Para 2 ;





2. —(1) Subject to sub-paragraphs (2) to (5), you must comply with this Code whenever you—

(a) conduct the business of the Authority (which, in this Code, includes the business of the office to which you are elected or appointed); or

(b) act, claim to act or give the impression you are acting as a representative of the Authority,

and references to your official capacity are construed accordingly.

BREACH 5 - This clause on public statements requires that assembly members when making formal press statements concerning their official GLA roles and duties where they state that they intend to discriminate, harass, shun, incite others to discriminate and to assist assembly members to discriminate, then they are in breach of the GLA Code of Conduct and are liable to be disciplined for such breaches of the code. This means that the statements of both Richard Barnes and Len Duvall are in breach of the Code of Conduct and should be referred for investigations.





Further breaches of the Code of Conduct relate too ;

General obligations


3. —(1) You must treat others with respect.

(2) You must not—

(a) do anything which may cause the Authority to breach any of the equality enactments (as defined in section 33 of the Equality Act 2006);

(b) bully any person

(d) do anything which compromises or is likely to compromise the impartiality of those who work for, or on behalf of, the Authority;

BREACH 6 - The clause 3 (a) (b) (d) breaches relate to the statements of both Richard Barnes and Len Duvall which are statements which are defined as bullying. Also that the statements were clearly designed to incite discrimination against Richard Barnbrook in his role as a GLA member. They are also in breach of the Equality Act 2006. They are also attempts to incite and assist GLA staff not to work with Mr. Barnbrook and the statements of both members are such that they have both stated an direct intention to assist GLA staff in any attempts by GLA staff to breach the Code of Conduct for GLA staff and commit deliberate acts of Gross Misconduct.




The statements of Richard Barnes and Len Duvall are also breaches of the Code of Conduct as regards ;



Duty to Uphold the Law

You should uphold the law and, on all occasions, act in accordance with the trust that the public is entitled to place in you.

BREACH 7 - This is breached as the attempt to assist GLA members and staff in breaching the law as defined under the Equality Act 2006 is a clear breach of the duty to ‘uphold the law’.





Stewardship

You should do whatever you are able to do to ensure that your authority uses its resources prudently and in accordance with the law.

BREACH 8 - This is in clear breach of the requirements that assembly members use GLA resources lawfully and this is clearly in breach when assembly members assert that they will be breaking both the law and assisting others to breach the law.





Leadership

You should promote and support these principles by leadership, and by example, and should act in a way that secures or preserves public confidence.

BREACH 9 - By acting in a way that is both unlawful, and stating that they intend to assist others to act in an unlawful manner, the requirement under the leadership provisions is breached as public confidence in the assembly has been damaged.






scope


2. —(1) Subject to sub-paragraphs (2) to (5), you must comply with this Code whenever you—

(a) conduct the business of the Authority (which, in this Code, includes the business of the office to which you are elected or appointed); or

(b) act, claim to act or give the impression you are acting as a representative of the Authority,

BREACH 10 - the statements of both Richard Barnes and Len Duvall were made to the press in their official capacities as assembly members acting in their roles as the leaders of their respective groups in the GLA assembly. Therefore they are in clear breach of the requirements of Paragraph 2 (b).





5. You must not conduct yourself in a manner which could reasonably be regarded as bringing your office or authority into disrepute.

Breach 11 - The statements of Richard Barnes and Len Duvall are both statements which have brought both their office and the authority into disrepute. Both statements express an intention to unlawfully discriminate, harass and incite GLA staff to breach their code of contract requirements. Therefore these statements have brought the GLA and themselves into disrepute.





6. You— (a) must not use or attempt to use your position as a member improperly to confer on or secure for yourself or any other person, an advantage or disadvantage; and

(b) must, when using or authorising the use by others of the resources of your authority—

(i) act in accordance with your authority's reasonable requirements;


(ii) ensure that such resources are not used improperly for political purposes (including party political purposes); and

Breach 12 - The statements of Richard Barnes and Len Duvall are attempts to use their positions as leaders of their official party blocks in the GLA to secure themselves and their parties as advantage by seeking to assist GLA staff not to work with Richard Barnrook and therefore for him tobe unable to fulfill his official duties and duty of care to the people in London that voted for him. The announcement of an intention to actively discriminate against Richard Barnbrook is an attempt to disadvantage both him as an individual GLA member and the British National Party and British National Party voters.






Therefore I request an immediate formal investigation and disciplinary action to be taken against both Richard Barnes and Len Duvall for the above 12 breaches of the Code of Conduct.





Yours Richard Barnbrook


British National Party GLA Assembly Member.