Moray councillor moves nearly 3,500 miles away to Egypt without telling his constituents

A Moray councillor has emigrated thousands of miles away to Egypt without informing his constituents.

Independent councillor Neil McLennan, originally elected as a Conservative, has held a seat in the Buckie ward since the council elections in May 2022.

However, he will now be answering his constituents’ emails from Cairo, Egypt, some 3,492 miles from his ward, where he moved without any announcement.

In Cairo, Cllr McLennan is working as a depute head at Malvern College, a British international school. His previous teaching post was at Nairn Academy.

Cllr McLennan can be seen in videos and photos introducing the new staff ahead of the children returning to school after their summer break.

Despite his move to Africa, Cllr McLennan has not given up his Buckie post, meaning he will be entitled to his annual £26,000 salary from Moray Council.

According to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, in a post put up by Malvern College on August 19, he can be seen in the background of pictures of a staff introduction day, held at the school in Cairo. The date for the event is not stated.

On September 1, Cllr McLennan appears in a video posted by the school.

Term time at Malvern officially started on September 6, as children attend school on Sundays in Egypt. On September 9, Cllr McLennan posted a picture of himself on Facebook in a car showroom in Cairo.

On the councillor’s official Facebook page, he has posted about a Buckie business and an abandoned car near Rathven in the last week, with no mention of Egypt.

According to the Moray councillors’ eligibility test, you only need to live in the Moray area at the time of the election. You do need to reside in the area once elected.

However, one of the key roles of a councillor, according to the Moray Council website, is to “spend a great deal of time with constituents through holding drop-in surgeries”.

The next Moray Council election is scheduled for May 2027.