Colette Goulding #

Introduction #

Colette Goulding is a Liverpool Labour councillor who represents the West Derby Muirhead ward and was suspended by the party in December 2025 after Knowsley Foodbank, a charity linked to her partner, was placed under investigation over the alleged “misappropriation of funds”. She had the whip removed after online newspaper The Post reported that private companies under the umbrella of The Big Help Group — founded by her partner, former Liverpool councillor Peter Mitchell — had received large sums from the foodbank. A government letter obtained by The Post and seen by the BBC stated the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) was investigating the charity over alleged “fraud, mismanagement and misuse of funds”.

Goulding did not respond to requests for comment, but Mitchell told the BBC that neither of them had “ever acted inappropriately”.

Background Information #

Goulding was elected as councillor for West Derby Muirhead in 2023, at which time she was a trustee and assistant CEO at Big Help Project — a now-collapsed homelessness charity pioneered by Mitchell. The Big Help Group is a collection of charities and companies involved in poverty reduction, homelessness and social housing.

In April 2024, The Post revealed that vulnerable tenants of the Big Help Project were being left living in squalid conditions, and a Charity Commission investigation was launched into allegations of financial malpractice within the charity. The paper then showed that over £5 million had been transferred out of charities connected to Mitchell and Goulding into private companies owned by the couple and their associates; one of those companies, Big Help Green, purchased the home the couple live in.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation #

Allegations, not findings. No charge has been brought against Goulding. The investigations concern Knowsley Foodbank and charities and companies connected to the Big Help Group; the SFO neither confirms nor denies any ongoing investigation. The only formal action against Goulding recorded by these reports is suspension of the Labour whip pending an investigation.

The immediate trigger was The Post’s reporting that an additional £195,000 had been siphoned out of Knowsley Foodbank and transferred into organisations connected to Mitchell and Goulding. The BBC framed the same claim as reports that payments totalling £195,000 had been transferred from the foodbank to companies under the banner of the Big Help Group — which the year before attempted a takeover of Southport Football Club; Mitchell said any money paid from the foodbank would have been for services provided by companies within the group.

According to a letter sent to the foodbank in July, Knowsley Foodbank is now subject to investigations by both the Charity Commission and the SFO, though the SFO said it could neither confirm nor deny that an investigation is underway. The Charity Commission confirmed in September that it had opened an investigation into the foodbank after being contacted by one of its grant providers, and was already investigating charities linked to Mitchell, including the Big Help Project, which went into liquidation last year.

A letter sent by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) to Knowsley Foodbank on 29 August informed the charity it was reversing a decision made in May to award a £173,000 grant, stating: “It has come to the Department’s attention that Knowsley Foodbank is the subject of an ongoing investigation by the Charity Commission and the Serious Fraud Office which we understand is focused on potential mismanagement, fraud and misappropriation of funds.” The letter said the investigation appeared to have commenced in June 2025, and that the foodbank’s difficulties “were not disclosed to the Department at any stage of the grant application process”.

The foodbank had also been in receipt of monthly payments of up to £50,000 from Knowsley Council; these were halted in the summer, leaving it facing a financial black hole and leading to the resignations of its management team.

Kay Davies, a trustee, raised a serious incident report with the Charity Commission in July, saying, “I have been completely transparent and I have nothing to hide at all.”

Public Reaction and Consequences #

The Labour Party said it would not provide an “ongoing commentary” on internal party matters, but sources confirmed Goulding had been suspended pending an investigation. A Liverpool Labour Party spokesperson told The Post: “Following allegations, we can confirm that Cllr Goulding has had the Labour whip suspended pending the outcome of an investigation.”

Liverpool Liberal Democrat leader Carl Cashman called the suspension “about time”, adding: “I think residents will be wondering what took them so long and if any other Labour councillors are implicated in this scandal. Colette remains a councillor in West Derby. She now must do the right thing and resign from the council.”

Mitchell said he had never been a trustee of Knowsley Foodbank, and that neither he nor Goulding had ever been spoken to by the police or the SFO about anything related to the Big Help Group or the foodbank. He said he was “immensely proud” of the Big Help Project’s record and blamed the group’s difficulties on a “London based finance firm” he had reported to regulators for alleged fraud. He added: “I totally refute any suggestion that either myself or Ms Goulding ever acted inappropriately at any stage and we are currently taking legal advice over the recent outrageous allegations against us.”

Current Status #

Goulding remains a councillor for West Derby Muirhead but sits without the Labour whip, suspended pending the outcome of the party investigation. Knowsley Foodbank has ceased operating, the Big Help Project is in liquidation, and the SFO will neither confirm nor deny any investigation.

Both Goulding and Mitchell were declared bankrupt in May 2025, and the Big Help Group began facing financial difficulties during the year.

Impact on Their Career/Life #

Less than three years after her election, Goulding has gone from trustee and assistant CEO of one of Liverpool’s most prominent anti-poverty charities to a suspended councillor. She was listed as a director of Big Help Group Ltd — a company founded by Mitchell in 2022 — until her resignation from that role in 2024.

Her May 2025 bankruptcy, alongside Mitchell’s, was reported without any finding of wrongdoing against her. Yet the collapse of the foodbank linked to her partner — its £173,000 government grant reversed, its monthly council payments of up to £50,000 halted, its management resigned and its operations ended — leaves her political career resting on the outcome of a Labour party investigation into allegations that remain unproven and that she has not publicly answered.