Liberal Democrat Mayoral hopeful Lembit Opik has reportedly disowned attempts by his own campaign to blame the loss of his Montgomeryshire Parliament seat on the actions of a Welsh Assembly Member.
Mr Opik is one of four contenders hoping to become the party’s 2012 Mayoral candidate.
A leaflet distributed by his campaign to party members in London blames the loss of his seat on an incident between former AM Mick Bates and a paramedic.
The same claim has also been made by Opik campaign staff in comments posted on the LibDemVoice website and beneath a recent MayorWatch article questioning Opik’s credibility as a Mayoral candidate.
The excuse for the loss of his seat drew criticism from another Welsh AM who accused Opik of disloyalty to his former colleague.
On his blog Peter Black AM wrote that it was Opik’s own “self-obsessive and flamboyant behaviour” which saw him ejected from the Commons and called on him to take “responsibility” for the loss of the seat.
Following Black’s criticism the former MP and reality TV star reportedly told walesonline.co.uk that he hadn’t approved the comments which he called “unacceptable”.
According to the site Mr Opik added: “From now on I won’t allow anything to be published without me signing it off in writing.”
