GWENT’S newest Labour MP has said she has stopped taking payment as a county councillor – but isn’t yet ready to step down from her local authority. 

Conservative opponents have sought to ramp up the pressure on Monmouthshire MP Catherine Fookes by putting forward a motion to this week’s full council meeting calling for her resignation following her election to Parliament at the July 4 general election. 

Tabled by Conservative opposition leader, Councillor Richard John, the motion “congratulates Cllr Fookes on her election as the Member of Parliament for Monmouthshire” but sets out reasons for her to step down from the council. 

Those include “significant disruption and challenges” in the Monmouth Town ward the newly elected MP has represented as a county councillor since May 2022 when Labour took power at the previously Tory-run authority. 

Cllr John said: “Given all the chaos that residents and businesses in Town ward have had to contend with in the past year, it’s vital that they have the chance to elect a diligent councillor who can actually be on the ground to represent them, not in London.” 

He had also said it wouldn’t be “fair on the public” if Ms Fookes continued “to take both salaries when everyone knows it would be impossible to do justice to both jobs.” 

An MP’s annual salary is £91,346, while county councillors receive £18,666.  The Conservatives had highlighted the two roles combined total a salary of more than £110,000. 

But Ms Fookes said she has already written to the council to say she no longer wants to receive her council salary, and said she will resign from the council but the by-election should be held “when the maximum number of voters can participate.” 

Labour had run the council as a minority administration for a year before a May 2023 deal with the one Green Party councillor who sits in a ‘Green Independent’ group with an independent councillor. 

That agreement which gives the Labour and Green Party Councillor Ian Chandler a combined 23 votes in the 46 member council – and the additional vote of Green Independent councillor Meirion Howells – has proved crucial in a number of crunch votes in the past year. 

The Conservatives, who won a Monmouth Town Council by-election, from Labour in the Town ward in June, have 18 members and would have to strike a deal with all, or some, of the four strong Independent group to wrestle control of the council from Labour. 

Ms Fookes said: “On Sunday, July 7 I wrote to the council asking them to stop paying me which they did with immediate effect. I am not drawing two salaries. The Conservatives should check their facts before making insinuations and accusations. 

“I have always been clear that I would not have two jobs if elected to Parliament. 

“I can therefore confirm that I will be resigning in due course, but triggering an election in the school holidays is not in the interests of voters as many residents will be away. I will formally tender my resignation at a time that will lead to an election when the maximum number of voters can participate.” 

The new MP suggested Cllr John should “turn his powers of scrutiny on certain Conservative MPs” who she said remain councillors in areas other than where they have been elected to Parliament. 

The Conservative motion will be put to the full meeting of Monmouthshire County Council at County Hall, in Usk on Thursday, July 18 and it notes that Welsh Labour legislation prevents those elected to the Senedd from also sitting as county councillors. 

When council meetings resumed last week, following the election period, the Conservative chairman of a council scrutiny committee highlighted Ms Fookes’ absence, and a Labour councillor said the party was reassigning committee seats as a result.

Monmouthshire council has confirmed it has complied with Ms Fookes’ request to stop her payments.