Cllr Mike Franklin, Conservative Councillor for Luton and Wayfield was expelled for retweeting racist and anti-Muslim tweets.

Cllr Vince Maple, Medway Labour Group Leader said, ‘More than 1000 days have passed since I brought Cllr Franklin’s tweets to the attention of the Medway Conservatives back in February 2016 during the highest profile council meeting of the year. Serious questions need to be asked as to why he was reselected to stand in May 2019, the local party needs to look closely at the processes that allowed Cllr Franklin to be reselected and consider appropriate disciplinary action for individuals involved.

‘If the Conservative Party took the issue of Islamophobia seriously, this would have been addressed much sooner.

‘The question must be asked, if Baroness Warsi hadn’t tweeted in February 2019, would Cllr Franklin still be a candidate for the election in May? I’m fearful that the answer would be yes.’

Cllr Naushabah Khan, Councillor for Gillingham South said, ‘I’m pleased to see the Conservative Party has finally taken action against Cllr Franklin following his anti-Muslim and hateful behaviour on social media.

‘It is disappointing, however, that it has taken such a long time and that action from the national party was needed before this was taken seriously. This matter was raised with Medway Conservative Party almost three years ago.

‘I have also lodged a complaint on this matter with the legal officer, as I do not believe Cllr Franklin’s conduct meets the requirements set out by the councillor code of conduct.

‘There should be no room in our politics for racism of any type.’

Further reading:  

Please see email attachments for copies of letters sent by the Labour Group regarding Cllr Franklin.
Article from 2016 ‘The Troubling Tweets of Cllr Michael Franklin’ http://thepoliticalmedway.co.uk/the-troubling-tweets-of-conservative-councillor-michael-franklin/