He said he told Didsbury “ages ago” that Gwynne was “leading” the group and said he had reported it “more than once” in recent months to Andy Smith, Labour’s current head of regional governance in the north-west of England.
Gerald Cooney, the former Labour leader of Tameside council in Greater Manchester, said he had told senior party officials multiple times about the WhatsApp group, which was called Trigger Me Timbers.
The cyclist said on Monday: “I think what’s caused me a lot of distress, and what has caused a lot of active travel campaigners a lot of distress is that … in that group were a whole load of local councillors, many of whom are still in office as local councillors, and not one of them seems to have challenged what he said.”.
Labour was warned more than a year ago about a “vile” WhatsApp group involving two of the party’s MPs, local councillors and a series of offensive messages, the Guardian has been told.
“I said to [Smith]: ‘You’ve done me in, yet you’re aware of a vile WhatsApp group from Denton [a town in Tameside]’ and he’s not done a thing about it,” he said.
