Labour chairman Ian Lavery under pressure to explain why council spent £1m on doing up his football club’s ground
The Labour MP is chairman of non-league Ashington AFC
LABOUR’S chairman is under pressure to explain why his football club accepted £1million in funding from the local council.
Non-league Ashington AFC, which is chaired by Ian Lavery, had a new stand built at their home ground funded by a council-owned property company.
The firm also helped fund salaries and maintenance costs at the semi-professional club in Northumberland, The Times reported.
Mr Lavery, the local MP, was not involved in the grant decision - but he faces questions over whether he was right to accept public funding for the team, which regularly attracts fewer than 200 fans.
Ashington play in the Northern League, the ninth tier of English football - five divisions below League Two.
They occupy a stadium owned by Northumberland County Council which was renovated between 2014 and 2016, with the £1million cost met by the council’s property development arm Arch.
The cash was used to build a new 250-seater stand - meaning it cost £4,000 per seat, more than most Premier League stadiums.
Arch also spent extra cash helping to pay costs at the club including staff salaries, maintenance expenses and entertainment.
During the time the cash was handed out, Northumberland council was led by Labour - but after the Tories won control last year, they launched a review of Arch’s spending.
There is no suggestion of wrongdoing by council officials or Mr Lavery, who was appointed as Labour chairman by Jeremy Corbyn in 2017.
But senior politicians from other parties have called for more transparency over the payments from Arch to Ashington.
Lib Dem MP Tom Brake told The Times: “What has happened here puts a big question mark over the financial judgment of the chairman of the Labour party.”
A spokesman for Mr Lavery told The Sun today: “As the local MP, Ian supported the valuable work of Northumberland County Council to bring investment to former mining communities, in particular those areas of his constituency suffering from high levels of social deprivation.
MOST READ IN POLITICS
“The specific community investment decisions were taken by Arch's board, of which Ian has never been a member.”
Ashington AFC said in a statement: “We have been extremely grateful to Arch for their support in delivering and supporting this facility and also in helping us deliver our aims as a community football club.”
Mr Lavery was previously criticised after the trade union he worked for paid him £90,000 in redundancy he left to become an MP, and gave him another £70,000 to pay his mortgage.