A FORMER Mayor of Blackburn has been told his political life as a Labour councillor is over by regional party bosses.

Blackburn with Darwen councillor Mike Madigan, who has been a councillor for 24 years, has had his appeal against a decision to deselect him from his Shadsworth ward seat rejected by the North West Labour party.

Labour chiefs said his work with the Ethnic Minorities' Development Association (EMDA) represented a "serious conflict of interest" with his council work - even though he said Blackburn with Darwen Council chief executive Phil Watson had advised him this was not the case.

North West party spokesman Joanna Parkinson said: "Labour is determined to raise standards within the party.

"This means that anybody who is involved in any way with an organisation which receives direct funding from a council cannot stand to be a councillor.

"We are not suggesting there has been any wrong doing on the part of Coun Madigan, but things have to be seen to be right."

The councillor wrote a letter to his Labour town hall colleagues blasting the party's local government committee which took the original decision to deselect him.

Apart from his association with EMDA, the committee cited his "confrontational approach" and his alleged need to do extra training in negotiation skills, diplomacy, problem solving and personnel management.

He labelled the report "tawdry and patronising" and said he had operated as a councillor for 24 years without the need for such training. Coun Madigan said today that he did not wish to comment on the situation other than to say he was disappointed.

Labour group and Council leader Coun Malcolm Doherty said: "I am sad that a member with such long experience as Mike has had to stand down but I am sure he will continue to serve EMDA and the Labour party as he has done in the past."

John Roberts, who chaired the Blackburn local government committee which originally deselected Coun Madigan, said: "It would be inappropriate for me to comment other than to express sadness that somebody who has been in the party for so many years should find himself in this situation where there is a serious conflict of interests."

Coun Madigan has been a controversial figure during his time as a councillor.

In 1986, when he was Mayor of the borough, he refused to attend a military tattoo after telling the army he would not take the traditional salute.

And in 1988 he reported his own council to the local government ombudsman after being gazumped in a land deal.

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