BIG JOE'S LIVERPOOL MAFIA?

Joe Anderson and Derek Hatton

Two former senior members of the Labour party in Liverpool have finally been charged by Merseyside Police, five years after their initial arrests.  Joe Anderson and Derek Hatton are among 12 individuals charged with corruption and/or misconduct offences.  The alleged offences relate to the awarding of building contracts in the city between 2010 and 2020.

Anderson, who very much has the appearance of the archetypal mafia boss, faces three charges.  Big Joe was arrested alongside Hatton and three others in 2020, while he was Liverpool mayor.  He was arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to commit bribery and intimidating a witness, although he has not been charged with the latter. His son David also faces a misconduct charge.

Anderson, who was previously leader of Liverpool City Council, was suspended by Labour shortly after his arrest, but refused to stand down as mayor and instead served out the remainder of his second term as an independent, which ended in 2021.  Sound familiar, Mike Amesbury?

Anderson tried to jump on the Westminster gravy train in 2017, but lost selection to trade unionist Dan Carden.

The name Derek Hatton will certainly be familiar with older readers.  In the 1980s Hatton was the loudest and most infamous voice in Liverpool Labour, despite the peak of his political career being a three year stint as deputy leader of the council.  An avowed Trotskyite communist, Hatton was a ringleader in the stand-off with Thatcher's government over her attempt to rein in council spending.  His actions during the rebellion led to his downfall and the end of his political career.  Expelled from Labour in 1986, he tried multiple times to rejoin the party, finally succeeding in 2019 under Corbyn's national leadership.  Less than two years later he was arrested and now faces two charges alongside his wife Sonjia, who was formerly a planning office at Liverpool City Council.

The full list of those charged can be found below.  They will appear before Preston magistrates on March 28.

• David Anderson (Joe Anderson's son), 37, of Wavertree, charged with one count of conspiracy to commit misconduct in a public office.
• Joe Anderson (former leader of Liverpool City Council, former Liverpool mayor), 67, of Knotty Ash, charged with with one count of bribery, one count of misconduct in a public office and one count of conspiracy to commit misconduct in a public office.
• Andrew Barr (former assistant director at Liverpool City Council), 51, of Ainsdale, charged with conspiracy to commit misconduct in a public office and one count of bribery.
• Phillipa Cook, 49, of Mossley Hill, charged with two counts of bribery.
• Alex Croft, 29, of Aughton, Lancashire, charged with one count of bribery.
• Julian Flanagan, 53, of Crosby charged with one count of conspiracy to commit bribery.
• Paul Flanagan, 61, of Knowsley Village, charged with one count of conspiracy to commit bribery.
• Derek Hatton (former deputy leader of Liverpool City Council, prior to date of offences), 77, of Aigburth, charged with one count of bribery and one count of counsel or procure misconduct in a public office.
• Sonjia Hatton (Derek Hatton's wife, former planning officer at Liverpool City Council, 49, of Aigburth, charged with one count of misconduct in a public office.
• Nicholas Kavanagh (former director at Liverpool City Council), 56, of Mossley Hill, charged with two counts of bribery.
• Adam McLean, 54, of Woolton, charged with one count of conspiracy to commit bribery.
• James Shalliker, 38, of Downholland, Lancashire, charged with one count of conspiracy to commit bribery.