A BID to force Gwent’s newest MP to resign her county council seat has been dismissed as Tory “sour grapes”. 

Labour MP Catherine Fookes has said she will step down from her council seat, after being elected to Parliament at the July 4 general election, at “an appropriate time” insisting a council by-election shouldn’t be held during the summer holiday period. 

The Conservative opposition on Monmouthshire County Council asked the council to call on the MP to resign from the authority in a motion to the full council’s July meeting. 

But the motion – tabled a week after Ms Fookes took the Monmouthshire seat, with a 3,338 majority over the Conservatives – was rejected by Labour councillors and the Green Party councillor who sits in a coalition cabinet with the Labour group, the largest on the council. 

Ahead of the July 18 meeting Ms Fookes said she would “formally tender my resignation at a time that will lead to an election when the maximum number of voters can participate".

When the Conservative motion was debated, Labour member for Chepstow Bulwark and Thornwell, Armand Watts, told the council: “The Tories lost and Labour won. All you’ve really got is the last throws, the last voice, of discontent from the Tories. 

“All this is, is a headline that should read ‘Sour grapes’. That is exactly how the public will see it. You’ve got no shame, any of you.” 

The MP, who attended the full council meeting, like a number of councillors via video link, repeated her intention to stand down from the council “at an appropriate time” but didn’t specify when. 

Cllr Fookes also accused Conservative group leader, Cllr Richard John, of seeking headlines after comments he’d made, in a press release, about her receiving two salaries, and confirmed she’d written to the council the Sunday after her election to stop her £18,666 council salary. 

She said: “Cllr John is fond of saying he wants a kinder politics but he’s tried to grab a headline putting out falsehoods before establishing the facts.” 

She said she agreed with the Tory motion her Monmouth Town ward “requires strong representation” but urged councillors to “vote against this misleading motion”. 

Green Party councillor Ian Chandler, who had also stood for the Monmouthshire seat at the general election, was one of several councillors to highlight during the previous council term two Conservatives became members of the Senedd and stayed in their roles until the council elections. Labour’s Martyn Groucutt pointed out David Davies had also continued as Monmouth’s Welsh Assembly Member for two years after his election as an MP in 2005. 

Council leader Mary Ann Brocklesby said it isn’t a matter for the council to decide when an individual councillor should resign. 

Cllr John said he wasn’t sure from contributions from other Labour members when Cllr Fookes would step down, with one suggesting it would be September, and he said if she had tendered her resignation on the day of the meeting the “most likely” date for a by-election would be Thursday, September 5. 

He highlighted Welsh Water works in Monmouth, a landslide on the nearby A40 and road schemes by the council as issues impacting the Town ward and footfall and said a September election would “allow a new councillor to take up their seat by the time of the next meeting in September.” 

Cllr John also highlighted the upcoming vote on the council’s replacement local development plan that earmarks a site for a potential 270 houses at Dixton Road, Monmouth. 

The Conservatives have 18 members on the 46 member county council and recently won a Monmouth Town Council by-election in the Town ward, from Labour.

At County Hall Labour’s 22 members have a working majority through a deal with Green Party member Cllr Chandler who sits in a Green Independent group with one other councillor. 

The motion was defeated by 22 votes to 16 with one abstention.