TORY COUNCILLOR SUSPENDED IN ‘ISLAMOPHOBIA’ ROW:
martin.shipton@walesonline.co.uk
A WELSH Conservative is one of 25 current and former Tory councillors across Britain suspended by the party for allegedly posting or sharing Islamophobic material on social media, we can reveal.
Aniel Pucella, who has represented the Brackla ward on Bridgend County Borough Council since 2017, confirmed that his suspension had been activated by the leader of the authority’s opposition Conservative group, Tom Giffard.
His status on the council’s website has been switched from Conservative to Independent.
Councillor Pucella, who is of Italian origin and works as a hairdresser, said he had been included in a dossier sent to Conservative Party headquarters because of some “jokes” that had been on his Facebook account for five years.
He told us: “I regularly put up jokes on my Facebook page, but I want to make it clear that I wasn’t the author or originator of these particular jokes.
“It’s a long time ago, and to be honest I can’t remember whether I liked or shared them. But I must have taken some action for me to have been included in this inquiry.”
In fact the then yet-to-be-elected Mr Pucella posted the two jokes as his Facebook status.
One of the “jokes” relates to the killing of non-believers and the other to some illegal immigrants who die in a house fire.
Asked whether he thought the jokes could be considered offensive, Cllr Pucella said: “It depends on the individual. I don’t think most people would find them offensive, but some Muslims might.”
He denied being Islamophobic and said he had no idea how long the investigation would take.
“I’ve got no experience of anything like this, so I don’t know whether it will take a week, a month or longer.
“With the general election campaign on, it’s not coming at a good time.”
A spokeswoman for the Welsh Conservatives confirmed that Cllr Pucella had been suspended from the party pending an investigation.
The inquiry into current and former Tory councillors was launched after a Twitter user called @MatesJacob compiled a dossier based on allegedly Islamophobic material from a variety of social media platforms.
After being presented with the posts by the Guardian newspaper, the Conservative Party suspended all those who are still members pending an investigation.
Tory peer Baroness Warsi, who has been calling for the party to hold an independent inquiry into Islamophobia, said she was appalled by the comments in the dossier.
“These further divisive and racist comments by elected Conservative councillors are a further indication of the issue of Islamophobia in the party,” she said.
Recently Boris Johnson went back on a pledge that his party would hold such an independent inquiry, saying that instead it would have a “general investigation into prejudice of all kinds”.