THE leader of Inverclyde Council has been reported to the councillors’ watchdog for allegedly calling his SNP rival a ‘stupid wee boy’.

Labour’s Stephen McCabe is the subject of a complaint to the Commissioner for Ethical Standards in Public Life, which investigates allegations of misconduct by elected representatives in Scotland.

It is over comments said to have been made made at a council committee meeting in September, when he allegedly insulted SNP leader Chris McEleny and told him to ‘shut up’ during a row over the local authority’s new health board member.

The complaint has been made by nationalist group secretary and depute leader, Cllr Jim MacLeod, who was also at the meeting and was put forward for the health board role by his party colleagues over Labour’s Jim Clocherty.

Mr MacLeod said: “During political debate things can get heated but the language that day was out of order.

“We tried to resolve the matter but it never has been resolved and I felt there was no other option but to complain.”

In a letter to the commissioner’s office, Mr MacLeod has accused the council leader of making ‘defamatory’ comments about Mr McEleny and claims that despite the local authority’s own monitoring officer deeming his behaviour ‘in clear breach’ of the code, the SNP chief has yet to receive an apology.

It comes after the Tele revealed how Cllr McEleny has been reported to the commissioner by the council’s chief executive over controversial comments he made on social media about council tax letters.

But Cllr MacLeod insists his complaint about Mr McCabe is not ‘tit for tat’. He said: “That’s not the case.

“We’ve tried umpteen times since the meeting took place in September to resolve the matter. I don’t think it’s right to belittle people in the manner Councillor McCabe did.”

Mr McCabe has been accused of breaching section three of the councillors’ code of conduct, which says all elected members must ‘respect the chair, colleagues, council employees and any members of the public’ during official proceedings.

The council leader said today: “It is surely no coincidence that days after SNP group leader Chris McEleny reveals he has been reported to the standards commission by the council’s chief executive his group report me and leak Councillor MacLeod’s letter to the Telegraph at the same time. 

“It is nothing more than a blatant attempt to distract from the fact that the council’s chief executive has been forced into taking the extremely rare action of reporting a council member to the commission.

“Unlike Councillor McEleny, I had the good grace to apologise within a matter of days for my part in the heated debate which took place at the council on 29 September. My apology was accepted by the council’s monitoring officer and the provost and as far as I am concerned that was the end of the matter.

“If the SNP group wish to see the terms of the apology all they need to do is ask me.”