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21
May 2024
Call to sack new Tory council equalities boss over social media post
A Conservative councillor appointed to oversee equalities and issues relating to refugees, asylum seekers and Gypsies for North Yorkshire should be sacked over a controversial social media post she made in 2019, it has been claimed.
Opposition members have questioned the appointment of Councillor Heather Phillips as executive member for corporate services after she liked a post on Twitter which appeared to question whether a photo of an unusually dark coloured squirrel was a Muslim.
Cllr Phillips is due to attend her first meeting of North Yorkshire Council’s decision-making executive today (Tuesday, May 21).
A Scarborough Borough Council standards investigation into Cllr Phillips’ post found retweeting and liking posts on any social media platform was the same as creating the content of the posts themselves.
The investigation into a complaint that Cllr Phillips had used “disrespectful and inappropriate language” concluded as the elected member had used an account featuring her councillor title and due to the nature of the language and content of the posts, Cllr Phillips should undertake equalities training.
The controversial Twitter post Councillor Heather Phillips 'liked'. Picture: LDRS
The investigation report stated:
Cllr Phillips, who represents Seamer, in Scarborough, has been approached for comment.
When asked about his appointment of Cllr Phillips to the executive and the Twitter post, North Yorkshire Council leader Councillor Carl Les said he aware she had undertaken the training that was recommended.
However, while a number of councillors privately said they disagreed with Cllr Phillips' appointment to the executive, or to the specific role on the executive, they declined to make any public statement on the issue.
'Very worrying'
However, Cllr Stuart Parsons, leader of the council’s Independents group, described the appointment as “very worrying”.
He said:
The council’s Labour group leader, Cllr Steve Shaw-Wright, said the standards regime was “a toothless tiger” and needed looking at.
Cllr Shaw-Wright added:
He added other elected members who had initially refused to undergo training following an investigation finding against them had fulfilled the duty by “sitting in the corner of an office reading a newspaper so they could prove they had attended”.
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