Rotten Boroughs Awards 2025
Rotten Boroughs, Issue 1666

The latest beneficiaries of our discredited honours system...

SHIT OF THE YEAR
North Northamptonshire councillor Matt Binley was binned by the Tories after admitting he had group sex with a 14-year-old girl and her 16-year-old friend who he picked up on the way home from the pub in 2009, while a serving police constable.

In 2010 Binley received a four-month prison sentence for attempting to pervert the course of justice after getting pissed at a wedding, crashing his car and claiming his mother was driving (she corroborated his story). In 2008 he faced allegations of assaulting a taxi driver. While the Tories finally expelled Binley in 2025, perhaps his comeback kid status was because his father was late Northampton South Conservative MP Brian Binley?

PREMIER PUGILISTS
Councillors' behaviour at Lib Dem-controlled Teignbridge meetings was, said consultants Grant Thornton, "unlike any they had seen", with physical confrontations, swearing and shouting, members muting each other's microphones and storming out. The "standards" committee did not meet for 18 months... because its members fell out.

SPACE CADET OF THE YEAR
Cornwall Conservative councillor Louis Gardner was such a cheerleader for Spaceport Cornwall that he clinched a £70,000 job as its "head of future air and space", while still Cornwall's cabinet member for the economy.

The ex-Royal Navy officer's appointment was surprising given his lack of spacecraft skills, but he had run a shop in Newquay (closed after a visit from bailiffs). Cllr Gardner quit the cabinet after the job announcement but had attended a council economic prosperity board meeting which agreed £200,000 of government funding for the spaceport – during his recruitment. Gardner had not declared an interest.

He apologised for breaching Cornwall's code of conduct. Inspector Knacker concluded there was no further action to take. Gardner left the spaceport and Cornwall council. A hard landing!

WORKING FROM HOME(S)
Labour's Sheldon Vestey jetted nearly 1,000 miles to Sutton's full council meeting from his new home in Valencia, southern Spain, after failing to inform Sutton of his casa nueva.

Eyebrows were raised after news that "Señor" Vestey's now wife had taken out a Help to Buy mortgage in 2018 on a new- build house, as Vestey already owned property in Norwich (such mortgages were on condition that buyers or their partners didn't own properties). Vestey said all properties, Spanish one included, had "the correct approvals". Excelente!

KKKANDIDATE OF THE YEAR
Joint winners here, given the resurfacing of Reform candidates' historic, offensive social media posts. Ronald Firman, successful West Northamptonshire council candidate, joked about being in the Ku Klux Klan and throwing refugees out of planes. Pete Addis, dropped by Reform as a 2024 election candidate after social media posts that "brown babies" were the result of anal sex, became an Independent on Ludlow town council! Charming pair!

NOD AND WINK
Secret recordings emerged of South Ayrshire chief executive Mike Newall and Tory leader Martin Dowey favouring firms with lucrative building and demolition contracts. Ex-copper Dowey bragged he could sack "fucking useless" council officers.

Separately, Newall advised a contractor they were "preferred" despite the lack of "agreements or council approval". Knacker found no criminality over the procurement scandal. Newall left and Dowey resigned, rejoining as Tory leader six months later.

ORDER OF THE BATH
West Northamptonshire Reform deputy leader James Petter joined an online council meeting while bathing – leaving his camera on. Cllr Ian McCord, among those treated to the bathtime display, said of the cock-up: "Once seen, certain things cannot be unseen".