Convener Manson vows to ‘fight on’ after call for her to quit
COUNCIL convener Andrea Manson has vowed to fight on and to try “clear her name” in the wake of a call for her to quit.
In an interview with BBC Radio Shetland tonight (Tuesday), Manson said that she was going to “fall on my sword” and resign before receiving an “overwhelming” swell of public support.
She said she wants the chance to tell councillors her side of the story, rather than the “headline news”.
Shetland Central representative Ian Scott had called for Manson to step down yesterday in the wake of her ban from company directorship late last month.
Manson was disqualified from acting as a director for three and a half years following the 2023 liquidation of Mid Brae Inn Ltd, which owed more than £170,000 in tax.
Shetland News reported earlier today that it is understood a number of elected members believe Manson should resign as convener, which is the lead civic position at Shetland Islands Council.
Councillors met in private following the news almost two weeks ago and decided to allow Manson time to come to the same conclusion rather than calling publicly for her resignation.
But the embattled convener told Radio Shetland she believed she had the support of “quite a few of my fellow councillors”.
She added, however, that she did not “know how many” were backing her.
In her interview tonight, Manson said she wanted to “clear her name” – and vowed to fight on as convener.
Councillor Scott said yesterday that Manson should step down “for the reputation both of the council and for Andrea herself”.
Scott said he had “every sympathy” for Manson, adding that “what’s happened in her business and private life has encroached upon her public life, and there’s no getting away from that”.
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“You have to own your errors, your mistakes, your misinterpretations, you have to be responsible for them.”
Scott did not call for Manson to be removed as a councillor.
Manson previously said she was “very sad and embarrassed” by the situation, adding that the business had been a “casualty of Covid”.
A letter of support for Manson was published by Shetland News today.
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