Labour Party orders suspension (From The Oxford Times)

Labour Party orders suspension

8:30am Friday 23rd November 2007 in News By Giles Sheldrick

OLIVE McIntosh-Stedman was last night suspended from the Labour Party.

Immediately after her conviction for benefit fraud, McIntosh-Stedman, an Oxfordshire county councillor who has represented Cowley and Littlemore since 1997, was told she had been suspended.

The 65-year-old will now have to appear before a party committee.

A party source last night said it was "extremely likely" she would be expelled.

She was elected as a Labour councillor but earlier this year - after news emerged she was facing fraud charges - she left the group to stand as an independent.

She is due to be sentenced next month and until then remains a serving county councillor.

National rules state that councillors given at least a six-month custodial sentence are immediately stripped of their office and barred from standing for five years.

Although the judge indicated he would not jail McIntosh-Stedman, politicians called on her to resign her seat.

Labour's Oxford East MP Andrew Smith said: "She should go and go now - that is, resign from the council immediately. As she been found guilty by a jury of dishonesty, the public will have no confidence in her and her position is untenable."

County council Liberal Democrat group leader Zoe Patrick said: "Personally, I think she should resign immediately, because it brings the council into disrepute."