Thursday February 6th 2025
Written by Local Democracy Reporter, Joe Sullivan
A director has been appointed to carry out an independent review of allegations against former Edinburgh council leader Cammy Day and historic complaints against other councillors.
It came as Cllr Day was stripped of several roles at a council meeting.
Councillor Day resigned from his role in December over allegations he had sent sexually explicit messages to Ukrainian refugees, having been suspended from Labour shortly before.
During Thursday’s full council meeting, a report suggesting the appointment of Kevin Dunion as the leader of the independent review was supported by councillors.
The review would have originally looked solely at historic and recent allegations made against Cllr Day, and the process by which information about his alleged misconduct was leaked.
After a consensus was reached between the executive and three party groups who all posed changes to the report, the review will be expanded to include allegations against all councillors from 2003 onwards.
The SNP group had originally lodged an amendment to broaden the scope of the investigation to look more deeply at the council’s process of handling whistleblowing and harassment claims, and extend the investigation beyond three months if needed.
Before reading in the amendment, SNP group leader Councillor Simita Kumar said: “We need to be flexible enough to extend the investigation beyond three months if this is needed.
“I don’t wish for this council to be accused of not being open, fair, honest or transparent.
“This amendment is not targeted at any one individual. In fact, it is pointed at all of us. I know, and I am really sorry, that my amendment may be seen as hurtful.
“If one of the alleged complainers was your own son, your daughter, your brother or your sister, and they told you that they were being sexually harassed by someone in a position of power, would you call it out? Would you report it? Or would you simply choose to ignore it?”
Much of the SNP amendment was integrated into the consensus motion agreed by the parties.
The request for a review came from a meeting of the council’s Policy and Sustainability Committee on December 10th last year.
Dunion was formerly the Scottish information commissioner, and currently holds an ethics-related role in the Scottish Government.
Cllr Day left the meeting at the start of the discussion of the report, having earlier been in attendance remotely.
Council leader Jane Meagher said: “I would like to reiterate that everyone accepts that Kevin Dunion is uniquely placed to conduct this review.
“I would like at this point to thank my colleagues from each of the other groups who have come to a conclusion which leads us to this composite position.”
“Thank you for your collaboration on this extremely important item.”
The appointments section earlier in the meeting removed Day from four roles, including two chair positions in various boards.
In the chair role of the Edinburgh Waterfront All-Party Oversight Group, Day was replaced with new council leader Jane Meagher, while in the rest he was replaced with various Labour councillors.
Day kept his webcam on as Cllr Meagher briefly requested a change to the appointments motion, having earlier turned off his camera when the council leader read in her Leader’s Report.
Throughout much of the portion of the meeting he attended, Cllr Day looked down at his phone, occasionally fidgeting with items on his desk.
Elsewhere in the appointments section, Councillor Katrina Faccenda was removed from the Transport and Environment Committee and replaced with Labour’s James Dalgleish.
Cllr Faccenda was suspended from the Labour group for three weeks last week after failing to vote for, and making a speech against, Cllr Meagher’s appointment to replace Cllr Day as council leader.
Meagher’s nine other Labour colleagues, alongside members of the Tory and Liberal Democrat groups, voted her into the position.
Cllr Meagher was also removed from several positions and appointed to others.
Edinburgh Council has been approached for comment.
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