Woolas won’t face prosecution

FORMER minister Phil Woolas won't face any charges ove the election debacle

NO further legal action is to be taken against former Oldham MP Phil Woolas (pictured left).

The Crown Prosecution Service said a case was not in the public interest.

Reviewing lawyer for the CPS Special Crime Division Simon Orme said: “The Election Court has already decided that Philip Woolas did make false statements about an opponent. As a result, Mr Woolas lost his seat in Parliament and was banned from standing for election for three years.

“When deciding to prosecute, we must consider whether a sufficient civil penalty has already been imposed on the suspect.

“In the circumstances, I have concluded that the serious nature of the allegations has been adequately addressed and it is unlikely that a criminal court would impose any significant further penalty.

“On that basis, a prosecution is not needed in the public interest.”

A specially convened election court stripped Mr Woolas of his Oldham East and Saddleworth seat in November after he was found guilty of lying about his Liberal Democrat opponent Elwyn Watkins.

The election was declared void, and Labour’s Debbie Abrahams went on to win the seat in January’s by-election.

Mr Woolas initially won the Oldham East and Saddleworth seat by 103 votes after two recounts at May’s General Election.

But defeated Mr Watkins complained that two particular publications contained “numerous misleading and erroneous claims” regarding his personal character and reputation, and that of his campaign.

The five–day election court sat at Saddleworth Civic Hall last September.

It was the first attempt in almost a century to overturn a general election result for alleged “illegal practices”.

Mr Woolas had attacked his opponent’s personal conduct and character with statements that he courted Muslim extremists who had advocated violence against the Labour MP, Mr Justice Nigel Teare and Mr Justice Griffith Williams were told.

Both statements were untrue and Mr Woolas knew them to be, the judges said.