The leader of Harrogate Borough Council has described comments made by a parish councillor for a “white lives matter” protest as deplorable and shocking.
More than two weeks ago, Cllr Ernest Butler, who sits on Darley and Menwith Parish Council, posted comments on his Facebook page suggesting that people moving to the UK were “taking over”.
The borough council received complaints about the remarks, but pointed out that its code of conduct does not extend to social media comments made by councillors.
Cllr Matthew Webber, Liberal Democrat councillor, asked council leader Richard Cooper at a meeting of the authority’s full council last night about the council’s position on the matter.
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Cllr Cooper said:
“First thing to say is Cllr Butler, who I had never heard of before this, his comments are deplorable and just really shocking.
“But there is a legal position here about what the borough council can and cannot do and I will ask the council’s solicitor to forward a copy to you of that legal position which has been supplied to those people in the media.
“You will be able to see for yourself. In fact, after so many years on the council, you should understand the standards procedure and what is and is not possible.
“But I will ask for your benefit for the council’s head of legal and governance services to forward that to you and copy all councillors in as well.
“If I was Darley and Menwith Parish Council, I would have thought twice about co-opting this gentleman in the first place and I would certainly be putting pressure on him to stand down.”
Councillor Richard Cooper (bottom right) told a full council meeting that Cllr Butler’s comments were deplorable.
It comes as Cllr Butler’s comments sparked controversy with anti-racism campaigners who took complaints to his employers.
When The Stray Ferret approached Cllr Ernest Butler he was not apologetic about his comments and said he had not done anything wrong.
He said:
“I am not a racist person. What I said online is true, there are just people out there that disagree with me and want to bring me down. I just stick my head above the parapet and say what other people can’t. It’s not racist to say people from European countries are taking jobs here and driving down the wages.”
