Hull Daily Mail editor John Meehan has expressed surprise after East Riding Council members passed a motion calling for the newspaper to be reported to the Press Complaints Commission.

The move follows the publication of a letter on July 6 which was critical of a leaflet produced by the Labour Party on behalf of its candidate in a recent Beverley by-election.

There have been calls for the Mail to reveal the identity of the author, who asked for their name to be withheld.

In the newspaper, the letter was attributed to a “concerned senior officer at the council”.

Last Tuesday a motion was proposed by Labour group leader Councillor Ian Male urging the council to write to the PCC expressing concern over the letter.

The motion said by refusing to reveal the name of the author, the Mail pointed the finger of suspicion at many good, hard-working officers at the council.

But the editor today defended the newspaper’s stance.

John said: “Our preference is to publish letters from contributors who are identified. Anonymity is seldom granted. However, in this case we agreed the name of the contributor would not be disclosed.

“Having agreed to non-disclosure at the time of publication, there is absolutely no question of the Mail revealing the writer’s identity, now or at any time in the future.

“To do so would be to undermine the credibility of the paper and the confidence of contributors to the letters page that justifiable requests for anonymity will be respected.

“I’m surprised councillors have supported a referral to the PCC. I expect the PCC to support us in respecting the contributor’s request for their identity not to be disclosed.”

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