A councillor has hit back at claims that he did not attend meetings and said he stood down because he did not want to stand between his colleagues. Cllr Gerald Vincent, of Longbridge ward, said he withdrew from next year s elections because he did now w

A councillor has hit back at claims that he did not attend meetings and said he stood down because he did not want to stand between his colleagues.

Cllr Gerald Vincent, of Longbridge ward, said he withdrew from next year's elections because he did now want to come between father and son, Cllrs Rocky and Nirmal Gill.

In last week's exclusive Post article about the de-selection of 13 Labour councillors in the borough, Dominic Twomey, the secretary of the Labour Party's Barking & Dagenham Local Government Committee, said that that only three sitting Barking councillors were not selected in Barking, while all other sitting councillors who were shortlisted had not attended selection meetings in their wards.

He said: "I'm really annoyed about the comment from Mr Twomey that sitting councillors who had been short-listed did not attend selection meetings in the wards they represent."

Cllr Vincent said: "I did attend the meetings with my two colleagues Nirmal and Rocky Gill.

"For four years we worked hard to build up Longbridge.

"I don't want residents to feel that I did not have the decency to turn up."

The new, third Labour candidate is Lynda Rice.

He added: "The lady was forced upon us.

"We were told they have to have a woman in each ward but when you look at the situation at the moment, why would we want to put a seat in jeopardy?"

Parsloes ward councillor, Bert Collins was said to have stood down but the Post could not reach him at the time of going to press.

Meanwhile, Cllr John Davis insisted that his selection interview had not been favourable to that of other candidates, as he claims a letter in last week's Postbag suggested.

He said: "My selection was no different than that of anyone else. I was interviewed by four to five people.