ANDREW Cumpsty tonight stood down as leader of the Tory opposition on Reading Borough Council.

The Caversham councillor, who led his party into a coalition with the Lib Dems for a year until Labour regain controlled of the council in May, sounded emotional as he made his announcement. There was a tremor in his voice as he told members at tonight's fuill council meeting that he was resigning for business reasons.

His likely successor, Peppard councillor Richard Willis, was not in the chamber for tonight's meeting.

There is known to have been friction among the Conservative leadership in Reading, which particularly came to the fore earlier in the summer when popular senior Tory councillor Jamie Chowdhary, who has been suffering from cancer, was deselected from his seat in Peppard ward and will not be standing again next May.

Full story in Thursday's Chronicle