THE response to the murky affair of Blackburn housing chairman Mohammed Khan being offered - by a panel made up of three Labour party colleagues and a fellow councillor - a £22,000 a year job with Blackburn Racial Equality Council while he was its chairman is not good enough.

Coun Khan now says he will not take up the post. But this, surely, is only a token gesture to correctness.

That is because he could not accept it in any case. He broke the rules by applying for it. The panel broke the rules by offering it to him. The whole business was invalid.

He also says he has resigned as the REC's chairman. So he should.

But what of his role as a councillor? With his integrity so stained, should he not be considering his position? Meantime, as the director of the REC was on the carpet today over this matter, there is a deafening silence from leading councillors over this and the behaviour of the people on the panel. Their reticence is also not good enough.

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