A FORMER Mayor of Worcester has laid into the city's controversial new first citizen - saying he has abused "a great honour and privilege".

Councillor Liz Smith, the city's lone Liberal Democrat, says the Alan Amos saga will not go away until he explains his rise to the mayoralty.

The veteran politician has also accused Cllr Amos of "holding a gun" to Worcester's Conservative Party in order to promote his own ambitions.

Her fresh criticism is among the most stark the new mayor has had to face from rival councillors, with Cllr Smith saying the city's politicians have all been damaged in recent weeks.

Cllr Smith, who was Mayor of Worcester in 1995/96, said: "Cllr Amos has used the vulnerability of the council to promote his own ambitions by holding a gun to the head of Worcester’s Conservative leadership, pushing aside their own long-favoured candidate in a grab for power.

"He has abandoned his party twice and shows no indication that cherished policies or beliefs have played a part in his decisions.

"If those decisions or those of the Conservative leadership were principled ones the public, who value transparency in public office, should be given an explanation.

"However all the evidence points to this not being the case."

When Worcester City Council first ended up in no overall control in 2012 Cllr Smith backed a minority Tory administration, before switching sides last year to allow Labour to form a shock coup.

She said on both of those deals, the "agreements or negotiations are in the public domain", adding: "The difference this time is that none of this has happened".

"It is this, I believe, rather than the intrusion of politics which has upset so many, including myself," she said.

As your Worcester News revealed last month Cllr Amos, who represents Warndon, suddenly resigned from the Labour Party to become an independent.

Two days later he used his vote to allow the Conservatives to take back power, and was made the new mayor by the Tories on the same night.

Cllr Amos had tried to become Labour's new deputy mayoral candidate a few days beforehand but after losing out to Councillor Jabba Riaz, resigned.

After quitting he said he had "not felt part of the Labour leadership for some time" but has refused to speak about it further.

Cllr Smith has faced criticism from the Tories in recent weeks, with Councillor Marc Bayliss using Twitter to say she "sold out" last year.

THE QUESTIONS WE WANT ANSWERED

YOUR Worcester News has put a series of questions to Councillor Alan Amos which as of today are still unanswered.

To refresh his memory on behalf of our readers they are:

- What would you say to the people of Warndon who elected you under a Labour banner with the biggest majority in the city?

- If the Conservatives had refused to make you the mayor, would you still have voted for a change of administration?

- Did you make becoming the new Mayor of Worcester a condition for allowing the Tories to take over?

- Why did you decide against resigning and fighting a by-election?

- You were a Conservative MP until 1992 - are you planning to rejoin the party?

- Have you asked for or been offered any other inducements for backing a change of control?