Former Bradford Council leader John Ryan has been suspended by the Labour group for six months for failing to toe the party line.

Councillor Ryan - who also heads the Bradford NHS Hospital Trust - was suspended for chairing an area panel meeting against the wishes of the Labour hierarchy.

He has also been penalised for failing to vote on a privatisation issue at a separate council meeting.

The group slapped the same penalty on Labour councillor Adrian Longthorn, who resigned from Bradford South Area Panel over a chairmanship row and also failed to vote in the same Council meeting.

The Labour group agreed after its election rout last May that members would not take key posts, including the top jobs on area panels.

The decision followed the heavy Labour election defeat which resulted in a hung council after a decade of Labour control.

The suspensions for the two councillors are the longest set for more than a decade. They were decided behind closed doors.

The main effect of the penalties will be to bar them from the group's annual meeting in May when Councillor Ian Greenwood, Labour group leader, is expected to face a challenge to his leadership.

The main Labour posts are also decided at the private meeting in City Hall.

Coun Ryan (Bowling) and Coun Longthorn (Wyke) will still serve on the Council and attend meetings but are barred from taking part in group meetings and activities.

They are both submitting appeals to the regional Labour party.

A Labour insider, who did not want to be named, said the suspensions may be linked to a leadership battle.

Coun Ryan, a Wakefield Council officer, was toppled from the Council leadership two years ago by Coun Greenwood, who had been his deputy.

Coun Ryan said today: "I have been a councillor for 20 years and a member of the Labour party for 30 with an exemplary record, which appears to have been ignored."

He added he had been voted in to be chairman of Bradford North Area Panel at its first meeting after the elections but had made it clear it was only for one meeting and that he would then seek clarification from his group.

"On the other issue," he said, "as far as I am concerned it was about the privatisation of the education service and I have always been opposed to the privatisation of council services.

"Because of the sensitivity of the issue I didn't vote. It was a decision to save embarrassment for the group and I feel it was modest in the circumstances."

Coun Longthorn resigned from Bradford South Area Panel last summer after the new group policy meant the two Labour members had to stand aside.

He said today he had already submitted his appeal and would continue to serve his electorate even if excluded from the group.

Council leader Councillor Margaret Eaton said Coun Ryan had been "a gentleman" in all her dealings with him but could not comment on the Labour action.

A regional Labour party spokesman said discipline was a matter for the group but they would deal with appeals.