A LABOUR councillor will meet two of the party’s whips on Caerphilly council today over comments he made about fellow members in a leaked e-mail to colleagues.

Writing to friend Andrew Whitcombe on December 17, Blackwood councillor Nigel Dix called the group’s chief whip on the council Gez Kirby and Islwyn AM Gwyn Price a “joke...but they are not funny”.

The correspondence, which also discussed the likelihood of whether Mr Price would seek re-election at the next National Assembly election in 2016, was sent inadvertently to his researcher and to every member of staff in the authority’s education department.

The Labour group launched an investigation into the comments, which will come to a head in a meeting between Cllr Dix and the two deputy whips, June Gale and Barbara Jones, today.

Cllr Dix said: “I’m disappointed with the council employee who saw it fit to pass this e-mail on to the press.

“It just goes to show that there are those in the council who are wasting the taxpayers’ time and not getting on with their job because it was passed on within council working hours.

“It was a genuine mistake which I have apologised for. I didn’t have my glasses on at the time I sent it.”

Cllr Dix added: “I haven’t lost faith in the party. You will get your squabbles but at the end of the day, we as a Labour group come together to do what’s best for our electorate.

“This is all just a storm in a tea cup.”

A spokesman for the Labour group said they could not comment until the internal investigation is completed.