Police probe far-right video featuring Belfast councillor
VIDEO footage of the deputy leader of far-right group Britain First and a Belfast councillor outside the city’s Islamic Centre is being investigated by police.
In the “stomach-churning” video posted on Facebook, Britain First’s second-in-command Jayda Fransen refers to the “Islamification of the mainland” and says London “looks more like Pakistan than England”.
Fransen — who was accompanied by far-right Belfast councillor Jolene Bunting — also refers to the city’s Islamic Centre as a “den of iniquity”.
Fransen is due in Belfast Magistrates Court today after making a speech outside City Hall in August in which it is alleged she used threatening and abusive language.
Her name went around the world at the end of November after US President Donald Trump re-tweeted inflammatory anti-Muslim videos she posted online. Afterwards, Fransen apmember pealed to Mr Trump to intervene in her Belfast court case.
Green Party councillor Georgina Milne said she will be investigating whether Belfast City Council’s Code of Conduct was breached.
She said: “Councillors are expected to hold themselves to a higher standard of behaviour than the general public and I intend to look at whether this has acted against our Code of Conduct with these stomach-churning comments which are tantamount to hate speech.
“I would offer my full support to Belfast Islamic Centre and the Muslim community in Belfast.
“I would also appeal to anybody in east Belfast who has experienced hate and harassment to reach out to me and I will do anything in my power to help.”
SDLP councillor Tim Attwood condemned the comments by the two women as “grotesque and offensive”.
A spokesman for the PSNI confirmed it had received a complaint about the video.
“Enquiries are ongoing,” he said.
The Belfast Islamic Centre could not be reached last night.