Newly elected Tory councillor is forced to quit over racist retweets
Newly elected Tory councillor is forced to quit over series of racist tweets and memes ‘about the ‘Muslim invasion’ migrants and the casting of black actor to play Dr Who’
- A local Conservative councillor has quit over his allegedly ‘racist’ retweets
- Marco Lorenzini was elected for the Bush Fair seat for Harlow Council last week
- But within days he had the whip removed after his Twitter profile was found
A local Conservative councillor has quit less than a week after being elected, after his Twitter feed was allegedly found to be full of ‘racist’ retweets.
Marco Lorenzini won the election for the Bush Fair seat for Harlow Council in Essex on Thursday by just four votes.
But yesterday the Conservatives removed the whip ‘immediately’ and he stepped down, after his Twitter was discovered to have retweeted posts which made comments that were described as racist.
Mr Lorenzini is yet to make a comment about his social media activity or the actions of the Conservative Party against him.
He has also deactivated his Twitter account.
The likes and retweets of the content which had been allegedly been made by Mr Lorenzini’s account emerged on Twitter yesterday afternoon, including one referring to a ‘Muslim invasion’ and another saying white people are ‘the only race you can legally discriminate against’.
Another mocked the recent casting of Ncuti Gatwa, a Black Scottish actor with Rwandan heritage, as the next Doctor Who.
Marco Lorenzini (pictured) quit as a local councillor for the Conservatives in Essex after less than a week when his Twitter account was discovered to have retweets deemed to be racist
Mr Lorenzini deactivated his Twitter after it was found by activists who took screenshots of his retweets and likes
Labour activists said they had uncovered Mr Lorenzini’s Twitter account which was also said to include references to Islam, praise for Tommy Robinson and insulting references to London mayor Sadiq Khan and Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer.
Another Twitter account he used read ‘If you live in the country, learn the language’ in its bio.
A spokesperson for the Harlow Conservatives said they ‘utterly condemn’ the remarks after they removed the whip from him and called for his resignation.
They said: ‘These abhorrent views are not the views of the Conservative party and we utterly condemn them. There is no place in our party for such thought and we will never accept it.’
The Conservative party in Harlow (pictured), Essex condemned Mr Lorenzini’s retweets
Conservative councillor Dan Swords, who also represents Bush Fair ward, told the BBC that he thinks the retweets are ‘disgusting’.
He said: ‘We will absolutely not accept racism in any form; it’s genuinely sickening to read, and we acted immediately.’
Mr Lorenzini reportedly told the local party that he did not have any social media accounts, so they weren’t vetted.
Cllr Swords added: ‘Vetting was carried out regardless and I understand at the time that he was using an unusual Twitter handle at the time that meant, despite extensive searches, nothing appeared but over the weekend he changed his Twitter handle which made the account identifiable.’
Source: Read Full Article