THE entire Conservative party at Basildon Council has been reported to the standard’s committee in a row over a confidential document leaked to the Echo.

Top secret documents shown to the Echo revealed that during a council meeting, which the public and press were excluded from, councillors decided against taking direct action against unauthorised development by travellers in Hovefields, Wickford.

Instead , they voted to continue investigating the illegal developments which had taken place without proper planning permission.

However, Gavin Callaghan, leader of the Basildon Labour group and chair of the council’s resource and policy committee, claims he has now made an official complaint against the Conservative party.

He believes a member of the party was responsible for leaking the document to the Echo.

Despite requests, the Echo will not reveal the member of the council who leaked the document.

It is a violation of journalists’ ethical standards to reveal confidential sources.

Mr Gallaghan attempted to force the paper to reveal its source - and when the Echo refused, he banned the council’s press office from sending media releases to the paper.

Mr Callaghan tweeted: “I have today reported all 19 members of the Basildon Tories Group to the Monitoring Officer and called for a full standards inquiry into the Hovefields planning committee leak.

“It is unacceptable, damaging to residents and should not have happened.

“We need answers and an investigation.”

Mr Callaghan did not respond when asked for further comment.

Phil Turner, leader of the Basildon Conservative Party, said: “What he is trying to do is cover up the real story that he is failing to make progress with Hovefields.

“I don’t think he has actually put the complaint in yet, just said that he will.

“It is like Kim Jong-Un and Trump making accusations against each other.

“All this is going to do it waste time and money. It is ludicrous.”

Deputy leader of the party, Kevin Blake, added that Callaghan’s actions were “petty, immature and childish”. He added: “I personally get on well with Gavin and I feel he has stabbed me in the back.

“How can he report all 19 members - I can understand if we all got together to leak the document but we didn’t and I wasn’t even at the meeting where the document was discussed so why has he reported all of us?”