Ex-mayor's 'sorry' for Marines claim rejected

APOLOGY IS 'WATERED DOWN' - AS ATTENTION TURNS TO HIS MP WIFE

- JANE HAYNES News Reporter

A MIDLAND councillor and former fire authority chief who had claimed for years that he had served as a Royal Marine has finally issued a public apology for misleading people about his military record - but in a "watered down" way.

In a typed and signed letter submitted to Wolverhampton City Council the night before a meeting to consider a report into the affair, Cllr Greg Brackenridge admitted that he had not passed out or achieved the fabled green beret and had never been a Royal Marine. He had only ever undergone training.

He had been ordered to apologise after an independent investigation ordered by the council. That inquiry found he had breached the councillor Code of Conduct in four ways by embellishing his military service “to increase his personal stature and to gain political advantage.”

Cllr Brackenridge did not cooperate with the investigation and did not accept its findings at the time.

The former mayor was ordered to provide a written public apology, with an agreed wording.

But he subsequently “rewrote it” and as a result the written apology has been rejected by the council’s regulatory and ethics committee. The issue has now been escalated to the full council.

Meanwhile, the spotlight is also now on his wife, Sureena, MP for Wolverhampton North East.