TEES Valley Mayor Ben Houchen has been cleared of any wrongdoing after Cleveland Police lodged an official complaint against him.

The force complained to the Tees Valley Combined Authority (TVCA) that comments made by the mayor over the resignation of Chief Constable Mike Veale last month had "caused much distress" amongst the alleged complainants.

The comments which prompted the complaint amounted to that Mr Houchen had said he was aware of the nature of the allegations against Mr Veale, which have prompted an Independent Office of Police Conduct (IOPC) investigation, but did not reveal any details.

It has since emerged that the claims are regarding Mr Veale’s alleged conduct towards female members of staff as well as alleged discrimination.

The TVCA has now found that Mr Houchen has no case to answer, and no code of conduct had been breached by his comments.

Last night, Mr Houchen said: “It is nice to have official confirmation that the complaint hasn’t been upheld but it doesn’t excuse Cleveland Police’s practice of trying to continually bully and harass those who criticise them.

“We are now sitting here, a week or two on from an awful week for Cleveland Police, and we have heard nothing from the force about what it is going to do to change things there, and all they are doing is sending silly legal letters and wasting everyone’s time.”

The force’s head of corporate communications Will Green told The Northern Echo: “We would not seek to comment on confidential correspondence nor in connection with an ongoing IOPC investigation.”

Mr Houchen went on to call again last night for the resignation of Labour Cleveland Police and Crime Commissioner Barry Coppinger, saying: “Barry needs to go. The force needs clear leadership at this time. If he doesn’t resign the force will never change.”

Mr Veale resigned last month, almost a month after Mr Coppinger was made aware of the allegations against him.

The mayor said last week that it was not the first time that Cleveland Police had tried to "silence" him.

Last year, when The Northern Echo revealed that a senior officer was being investigated over inappropriate sexual conduct – which later turned out to be former DI Simon Hurwood – Mr Houchen publicly criticised the force in a press release.

The legal team then wrote to him warning that he may have broken contempt of court law.