Row over councillor's interpreter

Mr Ali is taking English lessons

The Liberal Democrats are defending their decision to support one of their Manchester councillors who cannot speak English well enough to take part in council meetings.

The city council is paying for an interpreter to work with Councillor Liaqat Ali, whose first language is Urdu.

The Liberal Democrats represent the Longsight ward - where 42% of the population are from ethnic minorities.

Mr Ali - who is a Pakistan citizen who has applied for asylum after being forced to leave the country after several attacks on his business - won the seat from Labour by 152 votes in the local elections in May.

But the man he beat - Sajjad Hussein - says he should not be able to work as a councillor.

Language lessons

He told the Manchester Evening News: "It is ridiculous. He is not able to do his job because he can't read, write or speak English.

"Council papers are in English and discussion is in English.

"A lot of people are turning back to me and I feel like I am doing his work.

"He is not a citizen of this country and I cannot believe he was elected."

But Lib Dem council leader Simon Ashley said the Labour group's view was "playing into the hands of the BNP".

Mr Ali said he was taking regular language lessons and rejected the view that he could not represent the people who elected him.

'Completely unacceptable'

He said a lot of the people who came to see him could not speak English either and this helped him do a better job as he could understand exactly what they wanted.

Labour leader of the council, Councillor Richard Leese, called the situation "completely unacceptable".

Mr Leese said the Liberal Democrats should foot the bill for the interpreter rather than Manchester's council tax payers.

But Mr Ashley hit back, saying the suggestion that the council would pay for an interpreter was made by council officers.

He said a Lib Dem friend had accompanied Mr Ali at his first council meeting as his translator, but the council had insisted a Town Hall-approved interpreter be used in future.

He added: "Richard Leese obviously thinks scoring a few party political points is more important than 15 years of joint work on equality.

"He should check his facts with council officers before selling his principles for a few soundbites in the press."

Councillor Ali is allowed to serve as a councillor as Pakistan is a member of the Commonwealth.