A London weekly paper has been backed by readers and a leading local politician after being attacked by a council PR chief.

The Times Series in north London had been chasing Brent Council for information about two of its ex-employees involved in a gross misconduct investigation.

The two men, involved in a £50m regeneration project in Kilburn, were accused of living on council premises rent free and dodging council tax for three years.

Times reporters made two Freedom of Information requests to the council followed by an appeal to the Information Commissioner but they were all rejected.

Brent Council’s director of communications Toni McConville went on record as saying the reporters were muck-raking and investigating little more than gossip and conspiracy theories.

Times Series news editor Andrew McCorkell said that by receiving such backing, it was a moral victory if not a real one for the paper.

“We answer to our readers and the people who have a vested interest in the local community,” he told holdthefrontpage.

“If they are saying we’ve done our job properly then I think we have.

“They are the people we answer to, not politicians and the council.

“We felt this was worthy of continued investigation, especially since the two staff subsequently found well-paid jobs in Sheffield.

“The council argued about data protection relating to the employees but there were still details of the investigation they could have released to us without giving away personal details of those involved.

“We were justified in pursuing this constantly. There is a lot more to this case than conspiracy theories and gossip.”

Coun Anthony Dunn, a member of the Brent Council’s ruling party, told the paper: “I have never believed for one moment that the efforts of the Times have ever amounted to pointless muck-raking.

“The residents of south Kilburn owe a debt of gratitude to the Times for doing what journalists should be doing which is asking the difficult questions.”

Peter Jones, a former board member of the regeneration project, also praised the Times, saying it had served its community well by reporting on the pair.