A CONSERVATIVE councillor will go before a disciplinary board accused of labelling the Labour council leader a liar on social media.

The Wish ward councillor Robert Nemeth is preparing to go before Brighton and Hove City Council's standards committee for comments made on Twitter during a heated dispute over the future of the Carnegie Library.

Cllr Nemeth accused the Labour leader Warren Morgan of misleading the public in his threat that seven libraries would have to close if Hove Library was moved from its Victorian home in Church Road.

After being told he faced a disciplinary board the Conservative economic development and culture committee spokesman said Cllr Morgan should have more in his in-tray to occupy his time than pursuing the issue three months on.

The Argus understands that the statement in question relates to a Cllr Nemeth tweet which said "having personally witnessed Cllr Morgan lying about Hove Library".

The council itself concedes the powers of the standards panel are “limited” - lacking the power to suspend or disqualify a member or withdraw their basic or special responsibility allowances.

Cllr Nemeth said: “The claim was made throughout the campaign by Warren Morgan and the Labour Party generally that if Hove Library stayed open, seven other libraries would close.

“Time has shown that this was clearly incorrect because Hove Library is still open and so are the seven other libraries.

“It was clearly just a scaremongering tactic.

“Whenever you are in politics there are always choices.

“Lots of members of the public believed it and it nearly led to Hove Library being sold.

“As a council leader he should have much more important things to do than pursue this.”

It has not been revealed who complained about the Tweet.

Councillor Morgan said he would not comment on the issue because standards complaints are confidential until heard in public.

A Brighton and Hove City Council spokeswoman said: “In order to preserve the integrity of the complaints process, it is not the council’s practice to disclose the identity of any member who is the subject of a formal investigation or any other details of the complaint while that process is underway.

“That information is made publicly available only after an investigation has concluded and a relevant complaint referred to a standards panel.”