Councillor censured over emails about MP

A HIGH-RANKING South Tyneside councillor has been formally censured by a local authority Standards Committee over "disrespectful" emails concerning one of the borough's MPs.

- CHRIS BINDING Local Democracy Reporter

Labour councillor Ernest Gibson was the subject of a meeting of South Tyneside Council's Standards Committee this week in relation to a complaint about his conduct towards South Shields Labour MP Emma Lewell.

The main complaint dates back to February 15, 2022, and is connected to Coun Gibson’s correspondence regarding Ms Lewell and her friends and family, which was revealed to the Labour MP following an earlier request to the council.

The MP claimed that Coun Gibson’s behaviour was part of a “coordinated campaign”, which included “bullying” as well as “discussing and coordinating party politics” using an official council email and “organising against [her]’.

The complaint alleged that Coun Gibson’s behaviour was “wholly inappropriate” and focused on “personal matters” that were “very upsetting”, and also mentioned the councillor making requests for information about the South Shields MP to two council officers via email.

There was also a second complaint lodged against Coun Gibson where he was alleged to have made a phone call on a public bus referencing the confidential MP’s complaint and allegedly talking about an intention to “delete contemporaneous evidence” as described in an investigation report.

Council documents revealed that a member of the public overheard the alleged phone conversation and took written notes before reporting the incident to the MP’s then constituency office manager, Ann Best, who was also a Labour councillor at the time, and subsequently filed an official complaint with the council.

In a written response to the final reports from an external investigator in April 2025, Coun Gibson confirmed his presence on the bus but dismissed the “allegation about deleted emails as fantasy” with a subsequent investigation by council IT services finding no evidence of Coun Gibson deleting emails. That complaint was dismissed.