Councillor rapped for ‘xenophobic’ comments
A FORMER Tory councillor who said Britain would be “overrun with kebab shops” if Turkey joined the EU, praised Enoch Powell as “a great hero” and said “if you can’t speak English, go home” has been formally censured.
Glenn Williams told a colleague on Whatsapp that he “didn’t believe in multi-culturalism” and thought MP Enoch Powell, who made the infamous “rivers of blood” anti-immigration speech, “was right”.
Coun Williams, who represents Bablake, was forced to resign from the Conservative Party after the Telegraph revealed details of the conversation in the summer – but refused to quit the council.
He continues to serve as an independent despite being branded “racist” and “xenophobic” by council colleagues.
An ethics committee investigation was called as a result of Coun Williams’ comments and the ethics committee decided this month to officially censure Coun Williams.
An extraordinary full council meeting was called to debate Coun Williams’ behaviour where Labour council leader George Duggins and others called on Coun Williams to resign.
Coun Williams refused to quit the council following the incident, which occurred in the summer, and has continued to serve as an independent councillor.
In its report, the ethics committee accepted Coun Williams had not been acting in his capacity as a coun- cillor during the private Whatsapp conversation, but had been when discussing it with the media.
The committee found that Coun Williams had breached the council’s code of conduct when he stated “you should not be a minority in your own country”, claimed that immigrants were a “drain on resources” and made the statement, “I don’t believe in multi-culturalism”.
But it found that Coun Williams had not broken the code of conduct by stating that he viewed the late Conservative MP Enoch Powell, who made the infamous ‘rivers of blood’ anti-immigration speech, as a personal hero. The committee also found there had been no breach in relation to Coun Williams’ comments about the country becoming “overrun with kebab shops” if Turkey joined the EU.
The ethics committee found his quotes were not racist because he did not suggest one race was superior to another. But the comments were branded xenophobic as they “demonstrated a prejudice against people from other countries”.
The sections of the code of conduct considered to have been breached were: “To behave in accordance with all my legal obligations, alongside any requirements contained within the council’s policies, protocols and procedures including the use of council resources”; to “always treat people with respect, including the organisation and public I engage with and those I work alongside; and to “provide leadership through behaving in accordance with these principles when championing the interests of the communities with other organisations as well as within the council.”
The committee took into account apologies made by Coun Williams over the comments and the fact that he had taken steps to engage with communities since the incident by visiting a mosque, a Sikh temple and the Coventry Refugee and Migrant Centre.
The ethics committee decided to send a letter of censure to Coun Williams from the committee and recommended that he undertook further training on equality, diversity and dealing with the media.
It also decided to publish the findings on the council’s website, and recommended that Coun Williams should continue to engage with different sections of the community in Coventry.