Rather ironically, three years ago,Sir Richard Leese launched a strategy to tackle domestic abuse in Manchester with the words, “Violence in the home will not be tolerated.”
Perhaps not a truer word has been spoken, for today after accepting a police caution from Greater Manchester Police for an alleged assault on his 16 year old step daughter, the city council leader has stepped down temporarily with immediate effect.
His absence will be noticed. He has been a member of the Labour council since 1984, was deputy leader from 1990 and has been in his current role since 1996. Arguably, he has been at the helm as the city transformed itself after the IRA bomb of that year. He was knighted in 2006 for services to local government.
Yet his later years have been blighted. The decision to bring a super casino to Eastlands was laid firmly at his door and seemed to conflict with his vision of social equality while his proposals for a congestion charge were firmly rejected by the people of Manchester.
Sir Richard has been one of the major drivers of the Greater Manchester Combined Authority which would be established to coordinate transport, regeneration and economic development functions across the city and his city region vision may be sorely missed.
He was also well respected in the upper echelons of the Labour party, his opinions on policy often sought and it was rumoured that he had easy access to the ear of Gordon Brown.
He will be put out to graze during this tricky election period and will reconsider his future in June. In the meantime, his deputies will take over. Whether he will return, we wait to see.
[...] should not. Indeed, at Inside the M60 when we ran a comment piece on city council leader Sir Richard Leese accepting a police caution for assaulting his teenage step-daughter, we came under extraordinary attack on Twitter for [...]