A councillor has succeeded in her claim of unfair dismissal against her former boss, Bradford West MP Marsha Singh.

But employment tribunal panel members dismissed her claim of sexual discrimination.

Lynne Smith, a councillor for Wibsey, welcomed the written decision, 24 hours after the four-day hearing closed.

Both parties will be informed of the grounds on which the decisions were reached within 28 days, while a remedy hearing has been scheduled for February to award Coun Smith with appropriate compensation for loss of earnings, holiday pay owed to her and in respect of her unfair dismissal.

Coun Smith, assistant chief whip for Bradford Council's Labour group, lost her job as the MP's office manager in February.

She claimed unfair dismissal, sex discrimination and more than £7,000 in unpaid wages against the Labour MP on the grounds that she had continued to do her job from home while on sick leave.

Her claims followed grievances which arose after she took the job in a temporary position in May last year.

On receiving the verdict, she said: "This is exactly what I hoped for, justice has been done. The allegations made at the hearing were exceedingly distressing.

"My role as a councillor continues to be important and with this out of the way I will be able to concentrate on that even more."

Earlier in the hearing, she told the tribunal of how relations between the two deteriorated when the MP backtracked on supporting her in disciplining colleague Adrian Longthorn who had been suspended. When he returned, she said her position was untenable.

In response to the tribunal's findings, Mr Singh said: "I'm pleased that there were a lot of things dismissed but very disappointed on the unfair dismissal.

"I'm waiting now for the grounds on which the decision was reached and will be looking at the possibility of appeal.

"Obviously it's a shame it has come to this - the Labour party at loggerheads over this .

"I will carry on doing my job to the best of my ability as I have done for the last 10 years. My constituents come first."

Coun Smith said it "was not unexpected" that the MP would explore the possibility of an appeal.

e-mail: ben.barnett@bradford.newsquest.co.uk