Complaints against a senior councillor accused of foul play during a Wantage by-election campaign have been thrown out.

Jim Moley, a Liberal Democrat on Wantage Town Council, the Vale of White Horse District Council and Oxfordshire County Council, was reported to the Standards Board for England, which investigates unethical behaviour in local government.

District council Conservative group leader Melinda Tilley lodged the complaint over Mr Moley's behaviour in the run-up to the Charlton Wantage by-election. She claimed Mr Moley had wrongly accused former Wantage town councillor Amanda Harland of claiming allowances to which she was not entitled because she was not living in the area. The Conservatives lost the election.

On Tuesday, Mr Moley received confirmation from the Standards Board that no investigation would be carried out into the allegations made against him.

He said: "I raised appropriate questions in the public interest about the long absence of a Wantage Tory councillor living in Yorkshire working hard to get into Parliament there. They were questions the electorate were asking. That is what I was elected to do.

"It's a pity that the Tory leader on the district council could not accept a decisive election defeat with good grace. Instead she launched a time wasting and damaging complaint which she has not substantiated."

Mrs Tilley said the Tory group was disappointed by the board's verdict but would accept its decision.