THE LABOUR Party has suspended Cllr Mark Hale for the second time in a year following the circulation this week of a letter to Leigh CLP members.

The letter contained allegations about one of six short-listed parliamentary candidate hopefuls which Labour's North West regional office says are totally unfounded. Yesterday Cllr Hale, once earmarked as Labour's next parliamentary candidate for the Leigh constituency, was notified of the ban in a letter from Labour's North West Regional Director Kevin Lee. Peter Killeen, Labour North West Regional Officer, verified the decision to suspend Cllr Hale pending a full inquiry. But the regional office says the allegations were investigated thoroughly and judged to be "unfounded, unsupported and unproven" and the letter was "dismissed in its entirety". Cllr Hale was unavailable for comment before the Journal went to press.