A WOULD-be councillor has spoken of her disappointment after having her candidacy revoked following a complaint about social media posts.

Sue Morley had expected to be able to stand in the Eastbourne ward in next month’s Darlington Borough Council elections.

In November, The Northern Echo revealed that Ms Morley was being investigated by Labour Party officials after she referred to “benefits scum” in social media posts.

Now she has been told that she would not be selected to stand in the May elections as a result of the investigation.

“I can’t believe that I was not selected to stand in the elections due to posts from five years ago which I believe were taken out of context,” she said. “Why would someone spend time digging through my social media posts?”

The Facebook posts from 2014 showed Ms Morley referring to a disabled person as “benefits scum” and referring to the area she hopes to represent as a “s***house” estate in a post about dog fouling in the area.

She said: “Those posts were on my private account and not made public. As far as I’m concerned they were taken out of context as I wasn’t talking about the people but talking about the way those people were being portrayed on the television.

“As someone who lives in Eastbourne, I have they area’s best interests at heart. I have volunteered at the community centre for more than two years but now I’m being made to feel unwelcome there.”

Current Eastbourne Councillor Kevin Nicholson alerted Darlington’s Labour MP Jenny Chapman as well as the town’s council and Labour North about the posts.

A Labour North spokesman could not confirm Ms Morley claims but re-iterated the party’s selection process was designed to find the most suitable candidates for the elections.

He said “The Labour Party has a robust selection process to ensure we select the best candidates to represent local people. We cannot comment on the detail of specific selection processes.”

However, Ms Morley said she was disappointed by the selection process and wanted to set the record straight as she said she was too upset to respond at the time of the allegations.

She added: “I understand that the Labour Party has to go through the correct processes – I don’t blame them for that – but I don’t think those posts were a fair reflection of what I have said on social media.

"I have always been proud of where I am from and will always fight to do my best for the area whether I am a councillor or not."