Jackie Weaver: I never said I had the authority

THE STAR of a virtual parish council meeting that went viral online has hit out at the findings of an inquiry, saying she never claimed to have the authority to bar councillors from speaking.

Jackie Weaver shot to fame by banning and muting councillors during a chaotic meeting of Handforth parish council in December 2020, with one claiming she had “no authority” to do that.

She was infamously told by the chair of the council: “You have no authority here Jackie Weaver. No authority at all.”

Now a 145-page report into problems at the council found that she did not have the powers to back her actions.

In an exclusive GB News interview Jackie said she had never claimed to have any.

She said: “Many of the things, like the chairman saying I had no authority, that was absolutely true but I wasn’t claiming to have any authority.

“I wasn’t claiming I was. I wasn’t a proper officer. He just kept telling me I wasn’t.”

Jackie made her comments during an interview with Mark Steyn on GB News.

She said: “Actually, I feel really comfortable with it [the report], because it’s true. I mean, it says that there was no formal footing for the actions that I took.

“Yes, there weren’t because at the time, there were no amended standing, so no formal guidance on how you manage a virtual meeting.

“We were all doing the best we could in difficult situations.”

The report said: “Faced with what were unusual and difficult circumstances, and the deep-seated issues underpinning those circumstances, we can understand why Jackie Weaver acted as she did, despite her action being without any formal footing in terms of appropriate process and procedure.”

Addressing criticism that the document cost £85,000 and took too long to produce, she added: “Part of the reason that it took so long investigating was because the three people who were under investigation did not cooperate with investigators.”m