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A Conservative councillor and the party’s former Chair in Cornwall has been accused of “old-fashioned racism” after suggesting that Britain cannot sustain the “volume of young black males” she claimed was “flooding” the country and “jeopardising” safety.
Cornwall Conservative Councillor Pauline Giles backed a petition for “mass deportations” on Wednesday by expelled Reform UK MP Rupert Lowe. Cllr Giles is also a previous chair of Cornwall Council.
In her Facebook post endorsing his petition, she wrote: “If you want mass deportation of illegals in dinghies sign this petition! We cannot sustain the volume of young black males flooding our country. It jeopardises the security of our country and is slowly bankrupting us!”
Asked why their skin colour mattered, Cllr Giles stood by the comments and told Byline Times: “Because they are [black], aren’t they? I mean, they are coming over in boats, and I’ve seen the boats. I’m not making a big thing of this. I’m not prejudiced because I have friends of many colours. You see what’s coming across on the boats, and that’s what I am sort of registering.” However, shortly after Byline Times called, the Facebook post was deleted.
She went on: “I have helped a lot of people in my past. When there was the Ukrainian war [sic], I was one of the ones that spearheaded helping them and everything else. This is not about being prejudiced. This is about my concern for what is happening. And I really worry about young girls. If you have a look, it looks like these girls are being attacked by people from these boats.”
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Asked if there were any ‘small boats’ coming into Cornwall or if it was an issue in her ward of St Blazey, she said: “No, it’s not a problem for Cornwall at the moment. But the thing is, they’re coming in at such a rate that at some point they’re going to get put here somewhere, aren’t they?”
And asked if she’d commented on recent cases of sexual assault and rape by white people in Cornwall itself, she replied: “No.”
Presented with several such cases of assaults by white people in Cornwall itself, she said: “Anybody that gets assaulted is bad, and I’m not going to make a big issue with this [post]. The fact remains, they are coming over in masses and in totals, and that is my main concern – that we don’t have any background checks on these people. They’re just appearing and they’re not adhering to our laws or systems or beliefs.”
She added that the post was from her “personal” page, though it is public. “What I put on there is my belief and nothing to do with any other members of the Conservative group in Cornwall,” Cllr Giles said.
But she also said that her Facebook feed was full of stories of assaults by black people, as was the news.
“Whilst you say that, you know, there are white people and yellow people and everybody else [doing crimes], on Facebook and on social media, it is pushed all the time in front of us, isn’t it?”
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“A lot of the newspapers are the ones that are putting these stories up. And foolishly, I believe them, because they are a national institution in our country and they should be reporting the truth,” she said. The Conservative politician added that she had not seen the reported cases of assaults in Cornwall by white people
Noah Law, the local Labour MP for St Austell and Newquay, told Byline Times: “In the 1960s a young black male came to this country. He spent the next 40 years dedicating his life to our RAF and NHS. His children became teachers, nurturing the next generation on to a better life. That’s me.
“I have written to Kemi Badenoch to ask her to consider whether Cllr Giles should have any place in the Conservative Party, whether she should be sent packing to Reform UK where she belongs and…sent packing from Cornwall Council, by which time I hope we have put this dark, disgusting period of old-fashioned racism behind us.”
UPDATE, 6th November: Liberal Democrat MP for North Cornwall, Ben Maguire, has now called for Cllr Giles to quit, telling this outlet: “This is vile and blatant racism from a sitting Conservative Councillor.
“The Conservative Party couldn’t condemn Sarah Pochin’s racist comments, now they allow one of their councillors to come out with this.
“Racism has absolutely no place in our country, or in Cornish politics. Giles should resign immediately. If the Conservatives want to prove they are serious about tackling racism, they must remove the whip from her if she doesn’t.”
A Conservative Party spokesman did not condemn the comments, but told Byline Times: “The Conservative Party has robust procedures in place to handle complaints. When complaints are received they are dealt with swiftly and in accordance with our disciplinary process.”
St Austell and Newquay Conservative Party has been contacted for comment.
It comes after Byline Times revealed that Reform UK’s candidate for Mayor in Doncaster this May has been accused of making “openly racist comments” following the train stabbings over the weekend.
In posts on Sunday, responding to Saturday’s mass stabbing attack on the Doncaster to London King’s Cross train, Reform councillor Alexander Jones explicitly attributed the crime to “individuals” who were “not English” and instead “Black and of Caribbean descent” – despite the alleged killer being British.
When a commenter noted that fact, Cllr Jones replied that being “English” is tied to racial “lineage” and “Anglo-Saxon heritage”, appearing to imply that people of colour born in Britain cannot be English. The posts have now been deleted and Cllr Jones has issued an apology for “offence” and the comments being supposedly open to “interpretations”.
Got a story? Get in touch in confidence on josiah@bylinetimes.com
Disclosure note: Noah Law is a friend of the author’s.
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