Boris Johnson ally Bertha Joseph quits after mayor admits 'compelling case' against her. Bertha Joseph causes fury after she resigns after voting through fire budget cuts

Published in Guardian online on Fri 19th Mar 2010

Tory deputy leader of London's fire authority has quit after Boris Johnson conceded there was a "compelling case" against her staying in her post.

Bertha Joseph, who was suspended from Brent council in October for bringing her office into disrepute, resigned from her £19,000-a-year fire authority post yesterday evening.

But, to the fury of opposition members, she only did so after helping the Conservatives vote through a budget worth around half a billion pounds at the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority (LFEPA).

Johnson accepted her resignation amid a clamour by opposition members on the London assembly who asked why the mayor was so slow to act to remove the disgraced councillor.

Critics say Joseph's resignation was deliberately timed to allow the Tories to hold on to their one-member majority long enough to vote through a budget that includes cuts to London's fire services.

Joseph's departure as deputy chair brings to five the number of Tory appointments who have been forced to quit under Johnson's watch.

The Labour group say the latest exit once again raises questions about the political judgment of the most powerful elected Conservative in the country.

The mayor initially insisted there was legally nothing to stop Joseph from staying in the fire post after she lost an appeal in February against the council suspension imposed last October.

But protests from opposition parties on the London assembly led Johnson to announced earlier this month that he had written to Joseph and given her two weeks to explain why she should keep her fire authority job.

A spokeswoman for the mayor last night: "Councillor Joseph still disputes the complaint made against her, but the mayor believes the first-tier tribunal made a compelling case against her continuing to serve on the authority. The mayor had allowed Ms Joseph two weeks to make her case to him, in the interests of natural justice and due process."

Len Duvall, the leader of the Labour group on the assembly, said: "You have to question the integrity and judgment of this mayor standing by someone who has been disgraced and banned from public office. It's not the first time one of the mayor's appointments has had to leave under a sleazy cloud, but he could have done the right thing a lot sooner.

"This is someone who spent money intended for children's charities on clothes for herself. I'm amazed it took so long for the mayor to decide she was unfit for office."

Joseph defected from Labour to the Conservatives in 2007 and was described by Caroline Spelman, at that time the Tory chair, as a woman of "total integrity, honesty and courage".

Two years later, she was suspended by Brent council after a committee found she had failed to register within 28 days receipt of two gifts of cash amounting to £900, brought her office into disrepute by seeking and obtaining the cash for "sponsorship" of the mayor's ball, which she used to buy clothes, and used her position as mayor to gain an advantage for herself by obtaining the cash.

Days later, Joseph was made deputy chair of LFEPA after the Conservative group on the authority gained a majority of one following the defection of Labour's Betty Evans-Jacas.

Joseph appealed against her suspension from Brent council, but a judge ruled against her in February and remarked on her "repeated lack of credibility", which he said cast doubt on both her contrition and her assurances that it wouldn't happen again.

David Laverick also said there was "more than a possibility" that her actions had deprived charities of money.

The LFEPA budget meeting began with a walkout by two Liberal Democrats walked out when the chair Brian Coleman, who was personally appointed by Johnson, refused to allow TV cameras in to film Joseph voting through the budget.

Caroline Pidgeon, a member of the fire authority, said: "The Tories want to hide their shameful secret from the public that today's budget was passed due to the support of Councillor Joseph, someone who has been found guilty of serious wrongdoing and is unable to act as a councillor in her own borough."

Coleman defended the decision to ban TV cameras, on the grounds that they were there to focus on Joseph's presence on the authority.

"We are not there for light entertainment," he said.

Coleman added that "the meeting proceeded entirely normally".

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/mar/19/boris-johnson-bertha-joseph-london