Word has reached OnTheWight from within County Hall of a possible plan to overthrow the leader of the Isle of Wight council, Ian Stephens, and for a small breakaway group of the Island Independents to defect to vote with the Conservatives.
Unsurprisingly, as the discussions around this are behind closed doors, this is hard to confirm, but the people OnTheWight has spoken to about this have been highly reliable in the past. Calls have also been placed to those involved.
A highly fluid situation
Only six of the Island Independents would need to defect to the return the Conservatives to power at the council.
It’s a highly fluid situation, but as it’s been explained to OnTheWight, now only four defectors seem likely.
OnTheWight has also been told that this group has had discussions with the leader of the group of Conservative councillors, Cllr Dave Stewart, about this working pact, in an attempt to give them the control of the council.
So far, we’ve been unable to contact Cllr Stewart and others concerned.
