Hampshire County Council makes rule change after Cllr Alexis McEvoy’s Twitter remarks about Ian Wright over Gary Lineker immigration row

COUNTY councillors are now set to be held to account for making racist or discriminatory remarks online, following the furore caused by New Forest representative Alexis McEvoy.

At Hampshire County Council’s annual general meeting, members voted unanimously in favour of changing the code of conduct to cover posts made by members on their private social media accounts.

The motion gives the authority the opportunity to “invite” members to step down if they break the new rules.

The council’s leader has now been asked to write to the government to request legislation is changed, so that when racist and discriminatory remarks are made by a councillor in a public forum, those actions should fall within the scope of the council’s code of conduct for members.

The changes were voted through after serving councillor Alexis McEvoy called Match of the Day pundit Ian Wright a “typical black hypocrite” in March on her now-deleted Twitter account.

She made the comment in relation to his support for Gary Lineker’s criticism of the government’s language on immigration.

Cllr McEvoy has since apologised, and quit numerous public roles and the Conservative Party, but still sits on the county council as an unaffiliated member.

Councillors gave several highly emotional and personal speeches during the meeting where the rule changes were approved.

Cllr Arun Mummalaneni, Tory member for Basingstoke, said: “It comes to our attention that a colleague [made] an offensive comment on social media. The comment made caused immense pain and distress to many individuals, and I’m not an exception.

“The consequences of racism can be felt for generations to come. Children growing up in a society that tolerates or encourages racism might internalise these destructive messages.

“They may begin to believe that they are not good enough, that their worth is determined due to the colour of their skin.

“As an individual who has a personal experience of racism and prejudice due to my own skin colour, I can attest to the pain it inflates.”

Cllr Nick Adams-King said: “Discrimination comes in many forms. I’ve faced discrimination most of my adult life.

“I have a husband, and from the point at which I came out in the late 80s, that’s happened in every different form.

“We now, as a family, still face discrimination. My children faced discrimination. It’s not their fault that they happened to end up with two dads, but they did.

“It’s hurtful and demeaning, but people learn to live with it, and when this awful thing happens, it brings us all back to remembering that it still exists.”

Cllr Rod Cooper said: “I’m born Jewish. My parents were immigrants; my grandparents were immigrants on both sides.

“From most of my life through school and even today, I suffer discrimination from people that on numerous occasions said to me, ‘go back to your homeland’. My homeland is this county.”

Summarising the ethos behind the rule change, Cllr Stephen Reid said: “I am a councillor 24 hours, seven days a week. There is no time when I am not a county councillor, and any privacy I get is behind the closed door when I get home.

“If I say something in public, if I say something on social media, I’ve run the risk of damaging the reputation of this council and myself if I say something inappropriate.

“If one of us behaves in a way that brings disrepute onto the council, there is no way in which the council can’t do anything about it if it was judged that we were acting in a private capacity.

“I think our code of conduct needs to be amended; I think that a change in the law is very much needed.”

Additional reporting by Natalia Forero of the Local Democracy Reporting Service