Councillor helped me write letters

Election Court day three: II

The woman who complained about Elwyn Watkins paying staff £3 an hour, less than the minimum wage, admitted she was helped by Labour Councillor John Battye to compose her letters.

Rebecca McGladdery, from Greenacres, made headlines just before the General Election when she appeared on TV and in newspapers saying Mr Watkins had paid staff £2.80 less than the minimum wage when she worked for the Liberal Democrat local party in 2009.

She had gone to work for Mr Woolas’s team in 2010 after harassment from Liberal Democrat supporters, she said, including nuisance phone calls and stones thrown at her windows.

Mr James Laddie QC, for Mr Watkins, asked her about her letter to the Electoral Commission which claimed political donations of £35,000 in cash were not being declared by the Liberal Democrat, with several enclosures, and said: “You didn’t provide these?”

She agreed and added: “It was the person who was helping me, John Battye.”

She said: “I didn’t put the figures in. It was my belief he failed to declare the money.”

Councillor Battye, a former Mayor of Oldham and council leader, was re-elected to the council in May, and was also a part of Mr Woolas’s core election team.

Miss McGladdery admitted she had made also various complaints about Mr Watkins to Oldham and Rochdale Councils, the tax evasion hotline, the benefits hotline, and Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs.

She agreed she also made complaints about several Oldham councillors, and reported a fellow Liberal Democrat volunteer to the RSPCA for mistreating a cat.

Mr Laddie said when she was questioned at her home by the HMRC investigator about the failure to pay minimum wages the investigator was told it was written by a third party on her behalf, and she was not sure of the contents. She denied saying she was not sure of the contents and said she was unhappy when HMRC decided she was only working as a volunteer, and not entitled to the minimum wage.

He asked her: “Have you been used as a bit of a political pawn by the Labour Party?” But she replied: “Definitely not.” Then he asked her: “Did you go to the Labour Party in order to give Labour a political advantage?” She replied: “I went to ask for help.”

Questioned by Mr Gavin Millar QC for Mr Woolas, she denied inventing the story about harassment, and said she wrote her letters of complaint to public bodies with Councillor Battye as he sat at the computer:

“He asked me a number of questions, I gave him answers, he typed it up on the computer. I read through it, checked the information and signed for it.”

Judge Griffith Williams asked her: “As you were concerned enough to go to Mr Woolas, did you ever ask the Liberal Democrats or Mr Watkins to be paid the minimum wage?” She said: “No. I went because I was being harassed.” And she told Mr Millar she didn’t ask for more because Elwyn Watkins said he could not afford any more.