BREAKING NEWS: Political adviser quits over taped call

Published 6 Mar 2010 16:00 5 Comments

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A political adviser to the Royal Borough Andre Walker (pictured) has resigned after a recorded phone conversation was posted on the internet claiming he was conspiring to oust the council's deputy leader Alison Knight.

The damning and sometimes rude conversation was recorded by a rail passenger late on Tuesday night travelling on the Waterloo to Windsor and Eton Riverside line.

The Windsor resident, who was sitting near Mr Walker, claims that he was so disgusted by what he overheard he decided to record the comments.

Throughout the ten minute chat with an unidentified man Mr Walker is alleged to have sworn and made rude comments about a councillor, an allegation he denies.

A statement from the Royal Borough said: "Effective from this morning (Friday 5 March 2010) Mr André Walker has tendered his resignation from his position in the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead. This has been accepted and he is no longer employed by the council. The Royal Borough will not be making any further comment."

Mr Walker said: " I went into work today (Friday) as usual. My position was untenable and I resigned.

"I was on the train on Tuesday night, I made some comments I shouldn't have, I was incredibly unlucky to sit next to a left wing activist who decided to record me.

"I put the council in a difficult position, I have apologised for that. A conversation I had was overheard, I said the wrong thing, I have apologised. That apology has gone to various people in the group including Alison Knight.

I resigned because that was the appropriate thing to do. I haven't spoken to Alison Knight.

"I think I have been pretty reasonable. I owned up to a mistake I have made. It's pretty hurtful for me to hear all these allegations."

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Emma
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Mar 6, 03:33
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Is this the conservative way of handling their issues, what a shame that he thinks is was "incredibly unlucky to sit next to a left wing activiist", you Sir should feel ashamed to hold such views ans plan to take one of your party members down because it seems she is not 100% controllable any more. These are the conservative morals, would you please all of you go home and give way for clean honest politicians.

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Peter Hooper
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Mar 6, 12:37
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Personally I never knew the RBWM employed political advisors as Press Officers; though this may explain some of the politically biased press releases that have been issued recently.

Of course it begs the question as to what support Mr Walker had amoungst Tory Councillors to oust Mrs Knight as Deputy Leader, and whether "The Great Leader" (Cllr Burbage) was involved ?

A quick trawl of the internet threw up Mr Walkers' Wikiwak entry, his current position as President of the Greater Manchester Conservative Future and his position on the Executive Committee of the (Margaret thatcher) Conservative Way Forward Group.

Interestingly his name on the latter group appears right next to Russell Walters - Mr Adam Afriyie's Chief of Staff at the Palace of Westminster ! All I need to know now is whether Lord Ashcroft is somehow involved ?

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Just wants
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Mar 6, 13:38
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Look we're ALL sick and tired of sleeze and yet people in politics tend to lap it up and love it. Why cant we just vote on policys?

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******
Mar 6, 16:10
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Kevin Holder
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Mar 9, 09:27
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It just goes to show that politics is rotten to the core - top to bottom of the political chain.

How can we possibly vote in the upcoming election and believe that these politicians have our - the electorate - best interests at heart?

Self centred and egotistical.

We expect this at central Government but not within our own council.

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David Rogers
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Mar 9, 22:42
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Absolutely disgusting and not surprising given the way the Tories have been acting in the Windsor constituency for quite some time. The worrying thing is they use Windsor as their model at a national level too!

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