Leader of Portsmouth Independents Party, Cllr George Madgwick, is ordered to apologise to Tory and Labour councillors over accusations of being 'dodgy'

Councillor George Madgwick, who made the comments on Facebook in the wake of the May annual general meeting of Portsmouth City Council, said he 'accepted' they had 'misunderstood' what he had said but that he still regarded their actions as 'dodgy'.

The row centred on a partnership between the Tories and Labour to work with each other to nominate candidates to most committee chairman positions, at the expense of Cllr Madgwick's party and the Lib Dem administration.

'Labour have clearly taken a financial bribe from the Tories and vice versa,' he said at the time.

'The scrutiny panels are explainable. But their narrative of "we want to hold the administration to account" disappears when they are supporting each other on every one, including planning, licensing and fire [Hampshire & Isle of Wight Fire & Rescue Authority] all of which has nothing to do with the administration.'

In response, separate complaints were made through the council's standards committee, the outcomes for which were issued earlier this week but have not been made public.

On top of being asked to make the apologies, Cllr Madgwick was also ordered to take part in a training session with the council's monitoring officer about defamation.

'We did that earlier this week and I am willing to hold my hands up for the potential for what I said to have been misunderstood,' he told the Local Democracy Reporting Service. 'But I am not apologising.'

His written responses to Labour and the Conservatives were being reviewed by his solicitor before being sent.

Blasting member complaints as ‘an absolutely pointless’ waste of taxpayers’ time and money, he added, 'They took my comments completely out of context – I never implied there was anything illegal going on, just that what happened was dodgy, and it was.'

Conservative group leader Simon Bosher said he expected a 'full and unequivocal apology as he was ordered to do'.

'There's been a full, independent investigation and he's been found guilty. I don't think there's any wriggle room.

'As far as we are concerned, we are awaiting his apology which we have so far yet to have received.'