A stay-away councillor has quit the Labour Party.

Keith Murray-Hetherington said he was tearing up his membership card in protest at the way fellow members had pursued his resignation from Durham County Council.

Councillor Murray-Hetherington, who is also a magistrate, complained last year to the Standards Board, the watchdog of councillors' behaviour, claiming council leader Ken Manton had "harassed'' him in trying to get him to stand down.

The board decided to take no action, saying it was a political matter.

Coun Murray-Hetherington plans to continue representing Stanley on the county council until the next election in 2005.

He has angered the council's Labour leadership by attending only two out of 78 meetings in the last two years.

At the same time he has also been subject to resignation calls from North Durham MP Kevan Jones. Councillor Murray-Hetherington, who gets a £7,206 annual allowance for being a councillor, recently stepped down from the £19,000 chairmanship of the Derwentside Primary Care Trust, saying he wanted to "spend more time concentrating on my other personal commitments''.

North Durham constituency party chairman Christine Smith, a county council cabinet member, welcomed his resignation from the party, but added: "He should do the honourable thing and resign his seat because he was elected as a Labour councillor.

"There is nothing we can do as a constituency because he is no longer a member of the Labour Party and we have no dealings with him any more.

"Apart from not attending many meetings, councillors in neighbouring divisions were picking up a lot of work that he would have been doing.''

Council leader Ken Manton said: "I echo what Christine has said. I hope this is the first step towards a final resolution of a sticky problem in his relationship with the council.''