Tory councillor suspended over gypsy jibe
By Jon Ashford
Robert Fraser, a Tory county councillor for Leicester has been suspended for a month, after comments he made in a public assembly caused outrage.
Mr Fraser was ordered to attend intensive, one to one training sessions in relation to equality, by a council standards sub-committee.
Mr Fraser made the comments at a Groby parish council meeting, where hundreds were in attendance. The meeting was convened for the purposes of discussing possible caravan sites.
“Some of these European ones, they make the Irish look like complete amateurs and I would dread, I would dread, to see them in Groby,” he said, in response to a comment from the audience.
Not content with insulting the Irish, Mr Fraser continued, singling out Romanians for particular disdain.
“The Romanians; they’re lovely people they are. They’ll stick a knife in you soon as look at you.
“There might be some good ones. Excuse me if there are any Romanians here. Hopefully without a knife. I’ve got to get out of here. I’m a bit slow,” he said.
Unaware he had made any sort of blunder the councillor was bemused to discover the assembly had been filmed, and that a record of his comments was now on YouTube.
At a hearing on Tuesday, the councillor offered an intriguing defence for his comments, claiming his attendance at the parish meeting was not in any official capacity – and therefore he had not defamed his office.
Panel chairman Martin Caple rejected this excuse.
“We are satisfied Mr Fraser made a derogatory statement and the comment did not fall into part of an acceptable opinion.
“Your conduct is in breach and you brought your office into disrepute and could have brought the authority into disrepute,” he said.
Mr Fraser will have to pay £250 pounds towards the cost of his lessons.
