A SPAT has broken out after a Labour council leader accused an Alba Party candidate of breaching a byelaw by placing a political banner on council-owned railings.
Stephen McCabe, the leader of Inverclyde Council, shared on social media an image of a banner promoting the campaign of Chris McEleny, who has recently been confirmed as Alba’s General Election candidate for Inverclyde and Renfrewshire West.
The banner has been placed on railings in Port Glasgow and reads “Declare your independence, vote McEleny” with the Alba Party logo displayed in the corner.
McCabe took to Twitter/X to say: “I see @AlbaParty candidate @ChrisMcEleny has launched his general election campaign in earnest.
“I hope his rivals for the independence vote @InverclydeSNP don’t complain that this banner is attached to Inverclyde Council property in contravention of a local bye-law…”
But McEleny has disputed the claim, arguing that the byelaw banning political posters on council property only concerns election periods, with Rishi Sunak yet to name a date voters will hit the polls.
McEleny (below) also claimed the byelaw was also originally introduced to stop Yes campaign posters from being displayed in the area during the 2014 independence referendum.
He told The National: “I know very well what the bye-law in Inverclyde is because I was at the meeting in 2014 when Inverclyde Labour brought forward the policy to ban political posters during election periods from being placed on council property, because they wanted to stop the Yes campaign being able to put up pro-Yes messages because they didn’t have enough activists to put up Better Together posters.
“Stephen [McCabe] might want to read the detail. The byelaw only relates to during an election period. As much as I am looking forward to the election, and I wish Rishi Sunak would just get on with calling one, quite clearly we’re not in an election period.”
McEleny left the SNP in 2021 while he was a councillor in Inverclyde and is the Alba Party’s general secretary.
He will contest the seat against the SNP’s Ronnie Cowan, who has served as the MP for Inverclyde since 2015.
McCabe added: "The council has a local bye-law in place that prohibits the display of party political material on Council owned street furniture, such as lampposts and railings. The railings in the photo are owned by the Council at a prominent location in upper Port Glasgow.
"I am delighted Chris is standing and welcome him raising his profile. Chris won't take any votes from Labour. Hopefully he will take a few hundred votes from the SNP, which could be crucial in a close election."
Inverclyde Council has been approached for comment.
