A FORMER MP has said a rejected vote on whether to 'gag' him is a “return to sense” by the city’s Labour Party.

Worcester Constituency Labour Party (CLP) rejected a motion to ‘silence’ Mike Foster, Labour’s first MP for the city, and Daniel Walton, who previously stood for election in West Worcestershire, at a meeting in the Guildhall on Monday.

If the motion had succeeded, the CLP would have asked senior Labour figures to tell the pair to stop talking to the media about local party issues.

Mr Foster and Mr Walton had been in hot water with some party members because of critical comments about Labour’s controversial nominee, Mandy Richards, who was labelled a ‘fantasist’ due to ‘false and vexatious’ court claims.

Mike Foster, who was MP for Worcester from 1997 until 2010, said the vote “totally unnecessary and a distraction.”

“Obviously it is great news,” he said.

“It is a return to sense within the Worcester Labour Party and that return cannot come soon enough.

“The job is not to attack a former parliamentary candidate nor is it to attack a former MP.

“After the Mandy Richards fiasco, it is now the job to prepare for next year’s local elections.”

Mr Foster does not think the debate over his potential gagging has put anybody off joining the party.

“I actually think just the opposite,” he said.

“I think it has actually brought members together.

“Members have stood up and said, 'enough is enough', this is not why I joined the party, and this is not what Labour is about.

“We are not going down that road.

“There are more important things to worry about.”

Worcester Labour Party was unavailable for comment.