A Tory councillor is facing calls to resign after tweeting he ‘bought two of the staff’ at a slavery museum – and said abortion clinics in Liverpool were a form of ‘crime prevention.’
Controversial Bob Frost, a Conservative councillor for North Deal, Kent, was lambasted for his series of unsavoury tweets, and branded racist by his local rival.
Cllr Frost has been accused of racism and insensitivity for making disparaging remarks over the weekend – while the Labour Party Conference was taking place in the north west city.
The district councillor tweeted that Liverpool was “The only city I know where the local Marie Stopes clinic is funded by the council as part of their crime prevention program.”
Marie Stopes clinics provide both NHS-funded, and private, abortion and vasectomy services nationwide.
Cllr Frost was slammed by his Labour opponent Charlotte Cornell, who claimed his comment about Liverpool’s International Slavery Museum was racist.
Wild-haired Cllr Frost tweeted: “Bollocks. By the way, don’t miss the Tate and Slavery Museum. I visited in Jan when we went to see Ken Dodd.
“Excellent service in restaurant attached. So good I bought two of the staff.”
Ms Cornell is still reeling because of the tweets, which were sent in reply to a selfie she posted on Saturday.
She said: “These tweets from an elected Conservative councillor are quite shocking.
“You cannot pass remarks about buying staff at a slavery museum off as a joke.
“This is racist and wholly unacceptable.
“I would be very surprised indeed if the current Tory leader of the council, Cllr Keith Morris, didn’t suspend the party whip from this councillor.
“Not to do so would be to condone Mr Frost’s remarks.”
The 66-year-old, from Deal, Kent, includes a warning in his Twitter biography about his acerbic humour.
He wrote: “WARNING – may use humour to expose or criticise other people’s stupidity or vices, especially in the world of contemporary politics.”
Cllr Frost, also a Deal town councillor, made no reference to the race of the two museum restaurant staff he had remarked about.
A Dover District Council spokesman said: “The council can only take action on a complaint about any councillor when discharging their functions as a councillor.
“The law does not allow the council to regulate what a person may do in his or her private capacity.
“There is no mechanism for the council to initiate a complaint under the code of conduct.
“Where a complaint is received it has to be dealt with in accordance with the council’s adopted arrangements for dealing with such complaints.
“We would not be able to comment on whether or not a complaint had been made.”
Cllr Frost, who made no comment about the ethnicity of staff at the slavery museum, declined to answer questions about the latest Twitter storm.
He is no stranger to controversy caused by his interactions on social media.
He was suspended from the Conservative party after making the comment “jungle bunny” on Facebook during the August 2011 riots in English cities.
While Cllr Frost was later cleared of wrongdoing by his party, the row led to him leaving his job as a teacher at Sir Roger Manwood’s School in Sandwich.
In March 2014 he came under fire for using the terms “frogs”, “sons of camel drivers” and “ragheads” on social media.
The following year, he came under fire for posting a tweet telling a Big Issue seller to “f**k off back to Romania.”
Since you are here
Since you are here, we wanted to ask for your help.
Journalism in Britain is under threat. The government is becoming increasingly authoritarian and our media is run by a handful of billionaires, most of whom reside overseas and all of them have strong political allegiances and financial motivations.
Our mission is to hold the powerful to account. It is vital that free media is allowed to exist to expose hypocrisy, corruption, wrongdoing and abuse of power. But we can't do it without you.
If you can afford to contribute a small donation to the site it will help us to continue our work in the best interests of the public. We only ask you to donate what you can afford, with an option to cancel your subscription at any point.
To donate or subscribe to The London Economic, click here.
The TLE shop is also now open, with all profits going to supporting our work.
The shop can be found here.
You can also SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER .
