Moment Labour councillor apologises for calling Allerdale mayor a 'daft cow' thinking Zoom was muted

This is the moment a Labour councillor was forced to apologise for calling the local mayor a "daft cow" while believing he was muted on Zoom.

Alan Smith, the former leader of the Labour administration in Allerdale, made the comment as mayor Hilary Harrington discussed nominations for a vice chair position during a council meeting.

"Just a moment please — a technical glitch," Mrs Harrington says during the meeting as she appears to speak to someone sitting next to her out of the view of her camera.

Mr Smith swears before saying: "She's beside you, you daft cow."

He then puts his hand over his mouth in shock as he seems to realise his comments have been heard by all of the councillors taking part in the call.

Mr Smith later apologised for the insult after the councillors returned from a brief break.

He said: "It's been brought to my attention that my microphone was un-muted before we went into the adjournment, I may have made some derogatory remark.

"I would like you to accept my apology for anything you may have picked up, it was totally out of conduct for me to have my microphone un-muted, I didn't know I was un-muted. I'm sorry for what happened, take my apologies, please.'"

The mayor thanked Mr Smith for his apology as other councillors expressed their "disgust" at the Labour councillor's remarks.