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A Green Party councillor has hit out after being barred from referring to Reform councillors posing with a neo-Nazi.
Last August, five Reform councillors in Kent joined a ‘stop the boats’ protest in Maidstone. They appeared in photographs next to a man draped in a flag of the British Movement, described as ‘one of the UK’s longest-standing neo-Nazi organisations’, as local outlet Kent Current reported at the time.
The councillors were Oliver Bradshaw, Dean Burns, Amelia Randall, Garry Sturley and Pamela Williams. They posed with protesters including a heavily-tattooed man wrapped in a British Movement flag, who Byline Times identified as a former National Front activist.
Commenting on a graphic in a presentation from Reform-run Kent County Council in May, Green councillor Stuart Jeffery told the chamber: “I couldn’t see a photograph of the five Reform councillors alongside the neo-Nazi that was taken out the front here last summer.”
The Reform chairman of the council, Cllr Eustace, then intervened, saying: “No, please…Mr Jeffery, just sit down a second…Can we just take the heat out a little bit? I don’t want to hear the term Nazis in this chamber at all, so just be careful about the words that you choose, because it provokes a reaction, and I think that goes for everybody here.
“But, in particular, because you’ve just done it, I’m calling you out. So, please let’s calm it down, speak to what you’re actually being asked to do, which is denote the progress made or otherwise, depending on your view.”
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The Email to the Chairman
In an email to the chairman seen by this outlet, Cllr Jeffery said: “At last month’s full council meeting you stopped me using the phrase neo-Nazi during a speech. The context of this was describing an incident last year where five Reform councillors posed for photos with a known neo-Nazi (Mike Gott of the British Movement) outside of County Hall. This happened, I was there, I have the photos, and it has been reported in the national media…I have been told that you don’t believe that neo-Nazis exist – the government disagrees.
“I would therefore welcome your explanation as to why you feel that facts cannot be stated in a council meeting.
“In addition, I am told that you don’t currently have a list of words that you won’t allow to be stated. This is not helpful and I can only assume that you will make up the rules as you go. I am therefore unsure how I can comply with your curtailment of free speech if I don’t know which words are banned.
“I look forward to your response.”
The Green group leader, Cllr Mark Hood, has since met with the chairman and leader of the council to discuss these concerns among others.
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‘Deeply Frustrated’
Cllr Jeffery told Byline Times he was “deeply frustrated” by being shut down. He pointed to Green motions also being seemingly dismissed.
“We proposed a motion on water. After being proposed and seconded the chairman decided it should be deferred to a following meeting. They basically kicked it further down the road. He claimed we couldn’t put it in two times running. But that ignores the fact we didn’t formally propose/second it the first time, and last time it was deferred because Reform wanted to discuss saying the Lord’s Prayer in council meetings instead,” Cllr Jeffery said.
He added that he believed the ban on saying ‘neo-Nazis’ “came out of [the chair’s] desire to not be controversial.”
But the Green councillor points to members of the chairman’s own Reform group who have been exposed for racist and homophobic posts and comments.
“I have zero faith in him as chairman.”
Chairman Cllr Eustace told Byline Times: “I am constitutionally required to intervene when speeches criticise the motives or behaviour of any Member or Officer, under section 14.57 of the KCC Standing Orders. My intervention at the full Council meeting was made on that basis and applied in accordance with the Constitution.
“The suggestion that I do not believe neo-Nazis exist is entirely false. I have never made any such statement, publicly or privately. I cannot comment further at this time.”
He added that all elected Members of Kent County Council are bound by the Members’ Code of Conduct in respect of all communications made in their official capacity.
“Section 21.56 of the KCC Constitution is unambiguous: the Code applies to every form of communication and interaction undertaken by a Member in their official role. Every Member is expected to know and comply with that obligation without exception,” he said.
However, Green group leader Cllr Hood is categorical that the chairman claimed “There are no real Nazis in the UK” during their recent meeting. Hood told this outlet: “As an anti-fascist campaigner all my life, I know what a Nazi is. I see them on a weekly basis now,” campaigning in Kent.
Cllr Eustace claims it would be “wholly inconsistent” with his duty to uphold the council’s constitution for him to “engage publicly with correspondence that Members are themselves constitutionally bound to handle with discretion. I will not do so.”
A quote from Cllr Hood has been amended post-publication to clarify precisely what he argues Cllr Eustace said in their meeting.
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