Leader of West Northants Council reveals police are investigating harassment 'campaign' against him

The leader of West Northamptonshire Council (WNC) has revealed a prolonged ‘campaign’ against him is being investigated by police for harassment.

Councillor Jonathan Nunn said that he has reported a series of allegations made against him which are being investigated by officers.

The comment came after Independent councillor Paul Clark tried to talk about an email regarding claims about Mr. Nunn.

Councillor Clark was told it was not a council issue and was subsequently asked to rephrase his statement into a succinct question, to which he asked councillor Nunn, ‘Are you prepared to resign?’

In response, councillor Nunn said: “What councillor Clark refers to is a campaign in the last six weeks, maybe the last 25 years.

"Many and varied allegations have been made, they’ve been investigated, and including those ones you’ve all been emailed about this evening.

“I have approached the police who have confirmed they are pursuing this as harassment.”

This all unfolded in three minutes of chaos at WNC’s full council meeting on Thursday night (March 21).

Members in the public gallery can also be heard shouting in the background before they are escorted out of the building.

Councillor John Shepherd, chair of the meeting, said: “Whatever happened in the last few minutes is obviously regrettable.”

Video footage of the meeting was edited on WNC’s YouTube channel to cut out councillor Clark’s speech. The Chronicle & Echo asked why this was.

Anna Earnshaw, chief executive of WNC said: “The livestream was paused for a short period during Thursday’s full council meeting. We had reason to believe that potentially defamatory statements could be made in a public meeting. A councillor spoke about an individual member of the public in the meeting without specific reason and we therefore paused the recording to avoid the council publishing a potentially defamatory statement.”

Northamptonshire Police have been contacted for comment.

Watch the council meeting here and skip to two hours 17 minutes for the clip.