Ex-council leader refuses to apologise after MP complaint upheld
A former council leader has flatly refused to apologise after being found to have breached conduct rules, insisting instead that a Gosport MP “owes him an apology”.
Peter Chegwyn, Liberal Democrat councillor for Forton and ex-leader of Gosport Borough Council, said he is “completely unrepentant” despite a formal ruling against him over social media posts about Dame Caroline Dinenage.
The row centres on a series of posts made in January this year, in which Cllr Chegwyn accused the Conservative Gosport MP of lying.
The claims regarded arrangements for a meeting linked to the £20 million Pride in Place investment in Rowner. But the council’s monitoring officer upheld Dame Caroline’s complaint, finding the accusations were “most unfair and unacceptable” and describing the comments as “rude” and “abusive”.
He concluded Cllr Chegwyn had failed to treat the MP with respect and had brought both his role and the council into disrepute.
He has been asked to remove the posts, issue a written apology and undertake media training.
Despite the outcome of the complaint investigation, Cllr Chegwyn has doubled down.
He said: “I am completely unrepentant. She lied about me online – that’s in the standards report.
“She owes me an apology rather than the other way around. I will continue to call her out, and I am certainly not apologising. The council is not taking this to the standards board.
“Caroline should stop telling lies about her opponents.”
This comes less than a year since Cllr Chegwyn was found by an Initial Filtering Panel to have failed to treat others with respect following a dispute with a Conservative councillor in 2024.
The latest row erupted at the end of January when both Cllr Chegwyn and Dame Caroline took to Facebook to post about the Pride in Place meeting.
Cllr Chegwyn claimed that the Gosport MP “refused to allow the Labour councillor for Rowner to attend”, adding that “the meeting has now been cancelled.” He said he was “willing to attend” the meeting.
But Dame Caroline said Cllr Chegwyn “pulled out of a meeting” with her, only “24 hours” before it was due to take place.
She said Cllr Chegwyn “nominated a Labour councillor to meet me in his place, without the council’s prior agreement” and added that it was “bitterly disappointing” to be misrepresented about the matter on Facebook by the former leader.
Five months after the incident, Dame Caroline said she welcomed the decision by the council’s officer.
She said: “Political disagreements are inevitable, but repeatedly and publicly accusing someone of lying is completely unacceptable.
“I thank the monitoring officer and council officers for their work and look forward to receiving the recommended apology.”
Former council leader flatly refuses to apologise after breaching conduct rules
