Purcell and the 'Big C'

Have some tax payers money, Comrade.

According to the Daily Record, Steven Purcell is to be investigated over corruption claims.

Better late than never, I suppose.

Update - Anna has a very good post...

DRUG shame council boss Steven Purcell is being probed over alleged corruption.

It has been claimed the former Glasgow Council leader used undue influence to help friend and fellow councillor Ruth Black win a £50,000 contract.

An elite team of detectives are now investigating the claims, which it is understood follow a confidential tip-off this week to opposition SNP councillors.

The development is the first confirmed police involvement in the Purcell affair since his dramatic fall from grace last month.

The 37-year-old political high-flier suffered a breakdown and details of his cocaine use emerged.

The Record understand a confidential source supplied the SNP with potentially incriminating information over the award of the running of the city's publicly funded lesbian and gay drop-in centre.

The Nats tipped off police, who put their Major Crimes and Terrorism Investigation Unit on the case.

Officers are said to be examining claims about links between Purcell and Black, who friends say regularly socialised together.

Glasgow City Council chief executive George Black and the council's legal chief Ian Drummond have been made aware of the claims and ordered their own probe.

Ruth Black, 45, who defected to Labour from Tommy Sheridan's Solidarity Party in 2007, is boss of a firm called The Castro Glasgow Ltd, who were competing to run the new lesbianand gay drop-in centre.

A new centre was needed because the old one, formerly headed by Ruth Black, crashed with debts of £300,000 in April 2009, six months after she quit as centre manager.

Insiders say police are looking at claims that Purcell told people Black did not have to worry about the rival bid, as The Castro would be chosen to run the service and receive grant funding of around £50,000 a year.

The Castro was awarded the right to run the centre by the council's executive committee, chaired by Purcell, in October.

It opened in Merchant City last month. Last week, the council were accused of a cover-up after Labour and the Lib Dems voted down an SNP bid for an inquiry into the Purcell scandal.

Purcell, who came out as gay in 2006, fled abroad from his Glasgow home in the wake of his downfall.

A police spokeswoman said last night: "Following recent media reports related to Mr Steven Purcell, Strathclyde Police are assessing the information available to them."

Last night, Ruth Black said she was not aware of any police investigation into the affair.

She said: "This is the first I have heard of it."

And she added: "Both bids were assessed on their merits. It was nothing to do with Stephen Purcell in terms of decision making."

A council spokesman said: "If we receive any information we will pass it to our Internal Audit unit."