Warwickshire councillor involved in SEND controversy stands down as vice-chair

Under-fire Jeff Morgan has stood down as vice-chair of Warwickshire County Council – but he remains a councillor.

Cllr Morgan (Con, Bulkington & Whitestone) was one of three members that caused widespread outrage while discussing the county’s special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) provision at a meeting in January.

The former cabinet member for children and families – the councillor who oversaw the authority’s work in that field – questioned whether some children put forward for SEND assessments were “just really badly behaved” and in need of "some form of strict correction".

He had moved from the cabinet to the more ceremonial and less politicised role of vice-chair in May 2023, supporting the chair who is “the civic and ceremonial head of the council” according to its website.

Traditionally, whoever is vice-chair is then put forward to be chair for the following council year, a post Cllr Morgan would have been expected to take from May.

As well as being the face of the council at events during their year in the hotseat, the chair also presides over meetings of full council, “upholds and promotes the purposes of the council’s constitution” and “promotes the efficient dispatch of business giving due regard to the requirements of the council’s procedures, acknowledging the rights of councillors and the interests of the community”.

Councillor Brian Hammersley (Con, Bedworth Central) queried whether a surge in demand for SEND services was down to “something in the water”, while Councillor Clare Golby (Con, Arbury) was criticised for referring to social media pages where “families are swapping tips on how to get their children diagnosed”, although that was part of her wider set of questions over whether SEND issues may be getting conflated with other things such as parenting skill shortages.

All three have faced calls to resign, while leader Councillor Izzi Seccombe OBE (Con, Stour & the Vale) has resisted pressure to remove the Tory whip – essentially banishing them from the party – until investigations into scores of formal complaints have been completed, something the council has acknowledged is likely to take “months rather than weeks”.

Cllr Seccombe has distanced the authority from the comments and removed the trio from the Children & Young People’s Overview & Scrutiny Committee, the panel they made the comments to.

In an update for the Local Democracy Reporting Service, she confirmed all three remain as members of the council and Conservative party but that “there have been other things that they have resigned from”, going on to confirm that Cllr Morgan had stood down as vice-chair around a fortnight ago.

Asked what reasons Cllr Morgan had given, Cllr Seccombe replied: “It was just ‘I resign with immediate effect’.”

She confirmed the post would not be filled yet, adding: “The new council year begins in May with the annual meeting and that is the appropriate time to consider that.”

Cllr Morgan declined to field questions and terminated the call when approached by the media.