Tory Cleveland Police and Crime Commissioner Steve Turner denies conflict of interest accusations over investigations into opponents

Steve Turner, who put himself forward as a Conservative candidate for Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council in this month’s local elections, hit out at attacks against him after it emerged two complaints he made led to inquiries by local officers.

One related to a Labour election leaflet in blue colours – the colour of the Conservatives.

The second complaint related to allegations of harassment which Mr Turner reported using the police 101 number.

Labour has called for an investigation while the Liberal Democrats said Mr Turner’s position is untenable.

But Mr Turner has rejected accusations there was a conflict of interest stemming from his role as a police and crime commissioner.

In a statement, he said his report to the monitoring officer “was in line with the process laid out ahead of these elections and related to a vile and misleading leaflet attacking me and my wife who were candidates in these elections”.

Mr Turner added: “At no point did I personally refer any political opponent to Cleveland Police.”

Cleveland Police said routine inquiries were made to establish who created and distributed the leaflet, but it was concluded that no offence had been committed.

Mr Turner said he did contact police over a malicious communications by a member of the public and the individual was spoken to on the phone.

He said he was informed a crime was recorded but no further action would be taken as it was unlikely to meet the threshold required by Crown Prosecution Service.