Liverpool Town Hall

The matter has now been referred to the Standards Board for England watchdog by Cllr Anderson.

Cllr Storey is already under investigation by the Standards Board for his conduct towards former Culture Company chief executive Jason Harborow.

The original Liverpool-Evil-Cabal site operated between June, 2006, and August, 2006, and was written by a fictional character, Tony Parrish.

The gossipy, online column carried alleg- ations of town hall corruption and levelled personal attacks at key figures.

Although postings are no longer made on the Evil Cabal site, a new blog called Liverpool Subculture has sprung up in its place.

In November, 2006, a leaked internal council report reached the conclusion that the Liverpool-Evil-Cabal website’s mysterious author was Matt Finnegan, the local authority’s assistant director for media.

Mr Finnegan has always laughed off suggestions of his involvement with “the blog”.

He left the council’s employment in 2005 following a row over confidential emails between him and Cllr Storey discussing how to speed up then-chief executive Sir David Henshaw’s retirement.