MP lodges complaint with council after leader called him a "moron"

An MP has lodged a formal complaint with the monitoring officer at Ashfield District Council after the authority's leader called him a “moron”.

Lee Anderson, Conservative MP for Ashfield, told Local Government Lawyer that he had been insulted by council leader Jason Zadrozny and that while he had apologised though the media he had not done so personally.

Cllr Zadrozny, leader of ruling local party Ashfield Independents, said: “I have made an apology but maintain that the comments were made in a private meeting. 

“I regret making the comments in the way I did but don't regret the sentiment.”

The remark was made at a meeting of a working group considering changes to the local plan.

Cllr Zadrozny said Mr Anderson had recently used parliamentary privilege to call environmental campaigners morons.

The two stood against each other at the last general election, which Mr Anderson won with 19.231 votes to Cllr Zadrozny’s 13,498.

Mark Smulian