The former leader of Rotherham Council, Roger Stone, has denied claims by senior officers and councillors that he was a ‘bully’.
Mr Stone, who stepped down from the council in the wake of the damning child sexual exploitation scandal, appeared before MPs yesterday.
He denied ever being a bully or cultivating a ‘macho or sexist’ culture in the local authority, two claims made by other senior officers at the council.
He said: ‘I’ve never been a bully. My concern is about working together and I believe the only way to take things forward is to work together.’
Mr Stone also rejected calls to return the OBE he received for political service to Rotherham, saying he didn’t ‘accept a number of the things that you’ve accused me of’.
