Former Hartlepool councillor censured over misleading leaflet seeks Conservative selection in Rural West...

Ex-Hartlepool councillor Tom Cassidy censured over misleading leaflet bids for Rural West comeback

Standards row councillor selected as Conservative candidate for Hartlepool's Rural West Ward in May Local Elections...

16th Feb 2026

A former Hartlepool councillor who was formally found to have breached the councils Code of Conduct over a misleading council tax election leaflet has announced his political return after putting himself forward as the Conservative candidate for the Rural West ward in the May 2026 local elections.

Thomas Cassidy, who spent six years on Hartlepool Borough Council, was one of two senior Conservative figures investigated following the distribution of campaign literature during the summer of 2023 which made claims about council tax that were later ruled to be untrue.

The Now Reform Councillor Mike Young was also found guilty in the council investigation which seen both having to apologise in front of full council.

The probe — carried out by an independent investigator after a referral to the Hartlepool Borough Councils Audit and Governance Committee — concluded that statements presented to the public had “no factual basis” and that another key claim was also inaccurate. The findings determined that both Cassidy and the then council leader Mike Young, who's since joined Reform UK had brought their roles and the local borough council into disrepute, in breach of the Code of Conduct.

The committee accepted the conclusions and required both councillors to issue formal apologies to full council, with the threat of censure had they failed to do so. Those apologies were subsequently delivered at a meeting of the authority.

The original leaflet asserted as fact that no other political party in Hartlepool had ever frozen council tax and claimed that the council leader had immediately instructed officers to prepare a budget that would do so. Investigators found there was no evidence to support the first claim and that the second statement was untrue, a ruling that became one of the most high-profile standards cases at the Civic Centre in recent years and a defining controversy of the Conservative administration’s time in office.

Cassidy has now confirmed that he intends to stand in Rural West, a ward with a markedly different political and demographic character to Hart, and is attempting to frame his candidacy around experience and local knowledge rather than the standards breach that marked the latter part of his period in public office & his ousting from the council.

His re-emergence now places the spotlight back on a controversy that raised broader questions about political messaging, the use of “facts” in campaign literature and the standards expected of elected members when communicating with the public.

Under the councillors’ Code of Conduct, members are bound by the rules not only in the council chamber but in any form of communication where they can reasonably be seen to be acting in their official capacity. The investigation into the leaflet made clear that material distributed during an election campaign by sitting councillors falls within that scope and can constitute a breach where it is misleading.

For the Conservatives, the decision to field a highly controversial figure associated with one of Hartlepool Borough Council's most notable recent standards rulings represents a calculated political move as they attempt to regain ground across the borough. For opponents, it's likely to provide ready-made ammunition in a contest that will be fought not only on local issues but also on trust, credibility and the record of those seeking election.

With the campaign now beginning to take shape, his candidacy ensures that the debate over standards in public life — and the accuracy of political claims made to residents — is set to return to the forefront of Hartlepool’s local elections.