I WISH to raise my concerns about some of the content of articles concerning me over the last few days. In both last Saturday’s report (“Labour veteran in contracts probe says: ‘I am not corrupt’”, The Herald, April 23), and on Wednesday (“Council kingpin denies any wrongdoing over contracts”, The Herald, April 27) you claim I was “ousted” as council leader. This is not the case. I had made it clear to my colleagues in the council some months ago that I would be stepping down in the early part of this year, and that is what happened. There was no coup.

Secondly, in another article you repeated the claim that Councillor Thomas Morgan was removed as the convener of the council’s audit and governance panel by me because he had raised questions about my relationship with one of the council’s contractors (“Parties at war as Labour and SNP fall victim to infighting”, The Herald, April 23).

This is untrue. Councillor Morgan was removed from his convenership because of an ongoing disciplinary case against him on an entirely different matter. That disciplinary matter was under way before he raised any “concerns”.

I have dedicated a large part of my life to public service and to the people of North Lanarkshire. I believe that, under my leadership, the council achieved much. It is deeply disappointing to find my name – and, worse, my daughter’s – dragged through the mud on the strength of anonymous allegations but I reiterate my stance in your articles of the past week: I am not corrupt, have never been corrupt and I look forward to that being proven by the ongoing investigation.

Councillor James McCabe,

North Lanarkshire Council,

Civic Centre, Motherwell.