Porter complains of unfair treatment

Dame Shirley Porter clashed with a QC in the High Court yesterday, complaining that she was being unreasonably treated in the witness box while giving her account of the Homes for Votes affair. Ian Burrell watched the second day of her evidence.

The former leader of Westminster council angrily refuted suggestions by Alun Jones QC, for district auditor John Magill, that she was not being helpful to the court. She accused him of unfairly rushing her through her evidence.

The altercation came during the second day of cross examination of Dame Shirley, who was being questioned on a mountain of documents drawn on by Mr Magill during his seven-year investigation.

The auditor found that Dame Shirley and five colleagues had been guilty of ``wilful misconduct'' and ruled that they were ``jointly and severally'' liable to a pounds 31m surcharge. Dame Shirley is attempting to overturn that surcharge

Yesterday she was asked by Mr Jones: "Are you really this morning trying to help us?"She responded: ``I don't want to be aggressive in any way, but I felt yesterday you were trying to bounce me along.''

She went on: ``It may be I am a little bit slower than I used to be but I cannot take in all this information and papers and just give off the cuff replies.

``I take it very seriously. I am here to defend myself. I am here to clear my name and take great exception if you think I am playing around with it. I am not.''

Asked by Mr Jones if she had thought of refreshing her memory about the documents before coming to court, Dame Shirley said she had tried but it appeared that quite a lot had not sunk in.

She said that she had previously tried to take her mind away from the whole affair because she was so dismayed at the way the council had been criticised.

She said: "I was so upset at the way all the work that we had done had been interpreted that I blotted it out."

Mr Jones replied: ``The reason you blotted it out was because it is too painful to look at the detail in black and white, and it is too easy to complain about unfairness.''

Dame Shirley said: ``That is absolutely wrong ... I am guilty of nothing.''

Mr Magill found that Westminster council had sought to fix election results by using the right-to-buy scheme to move people likely to vote Tory into marginal wards. Dame Shirley said that Westminster's actions were typical in the world of local government.

The trial continues

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