Buried by the Borough: How Hartlepool Council Tried to Hide a former Labour Councillors Resignation

Hartlepool Borough Councils being accused again of political bias, after its claimed they deliberately held back on a press release announcing the resignation of a Labour Councillor in order to plug a more 'positive' Council Tax Freeze, as the embattled political party faces yet another by-election in just weeks...

4th June 2025

A recent social media exposé has thrown Hartlepool Borough Council into the spotlight once more, raising ever more questions over its political neutrality.....

Former Labour Councillor Steve Wallace Resigned from Hartlepool Borough Council in May 2025

According to a leaked internal email, which has now been verified by sources close to the council, the resignation of the former Labour councillor Steve Wallace—following his guilty plea several months ago for assault—was said to have been 'deliberately withheld' from being publicly announced in favour of promoting a Labour Party press release about a proposed council tax freeze for locals in 2026, something which has already raised concerns about the local councils political neutrality.

Its claimed Last Friday, an email was reportedly sent from Hartlepool Borough Council to all elected councillors confirming former Labour Councillor Steve Wallace’s resignation, Wallace had originally been charged with sexual assault in 2023, just weeks after being elected under the Labour Party Banner for the towns Throston Ward where, on the day of his trial, Wallace then accepted a plea deal—pleading guilty to a lesser charge of assault by beating.

The resignation announcement, scheduled by HBC to have been made public the following Monday, was said to have been pulled from release, with only HBC Exposed, having access to a number of sources within the local council being the only publisher of Steve Wallace's resignation...

Its been alleged the council’s comms team, which works closely with Managing Director Denise McGuckin, instead of publishing a press release into the councillors resignation, decided to push a political message: a feel-good Facebook post about the Labour-led council’s intended freeze on council tax for 2026, something many have seen as a desperate plea by the Labour Party in Hartlepool to win back votes in an upcoming by-election triggered by the former Labour councillors resignation...

Guilty Plea vs Political Spin

Labour had only just been getting over the fall out of the Mike Hill scandal, only to be embroiled in another with former Councillor Steve Wallace.

The guilty plea by Wallace, once a serving Labour councillor, is more than just a personal disgrace—it reflects poorly on a party that has only recently washed the stains off its hands from a previous crisis, that being the Sexual Assault case of Mike Hill, former MP for Hartlepool. Yet rather than lead with the gravity of this news, Hartlepool Borough Council's communications team appear to have made a conscious editorial choice to delay publication of a councillors departure for a more politically focused message being peddled out to locals, despite there being strict rules around council comms & the insistence on remaining politically neutral at all times.

The delay conveniently coinciding with a Labour-aligned PR push on council tax is said to be raising serious questions about the political neutrality of the council's internal communications team, not to mention that of its returning officer Denise McGuckin, who in almost all of the cases, green lights the publications put out by the councils comms team, with the move not just giving rise to the question of some bad decision making by the council itself, but it might actually be a breach of the Local Government Code of Practice on Publicity, which strictly prohibits the use of council resources to promote political parties, we supposed to have trust in local governance & in council transparency, yet, it seems the institutions that are supposed to serve everyone, seem only to be serving the ones in power, just like it was under the previous Labour administration..

One source told us that if this had been a Reform or Elected Independent councillor, the coverage would have been merciless. Headlines, outrage, and political hit pieces would have dominated the local press. Instead, when it's a Labour figure? We get almost total radio silence from the council itself.

The public therefore has every right to ask:

Who authorised the delay of Steve Wallace’s resignation announcement?

Was there political pressure from the Labour group on the council?

Is the comms team operating as an impartial civic service—or a party-aligned propaganda machine for the Labour Party?

Because this latest scandal, coming hot on the heels of multiple controversies surrounding Hartlepool Borough Council, adds yet another crack to the credibility of the local council that was in 2023 branded a local council with no public confidence. .

We’re not just witnessing a failure of judgement here by the local council—we’re watching what seems to be the erosion of public confidence in supposedly neutral institutions.