Tory Mayor in Theresa May's Constituency quits in disgrace after 'Islamophobic Social Media posts' surface
The Conservative Mayor of Wokingham has quit his role following an investigation by the Wokingham Paper which brought to light a slew of 'Islamaphobic social media posts' related to racist far-right groups online, including the EDL. The Wokingham Paper reported a letter sent by Andy Croy, a Labour Councillor in Wokingham, who documented Tory Mayor Peter Lucey's extremely worrying online activity, writing:
"Mr Lucey’s profiles includes the following page ‘likes’ on Facebook:
Tommy Robinson, the racist leader of the racist English Defence League;
Patriot Promotional Page: Patriots voice, run by UK Pegida. Pegida is a far right Islamophobic group;
Generation Identitaire, a paramilitary Islamophobic organisation;
An Inquiry into Islam, an Islamophobic Facebook page;
Jihad Watch, an Islamophobic Facebook page;
Geert Wilders Supporters, an Islamophobic Facebook page;
Pegida Canada, Pegida is a far right Islamophobic group;
Infidels of Britain, a far right racist group;
We Need to Talk About Islam, an Islamophobic Facebook page;
Mark Steyn, a far-right Islamophobic page
Pamela Gellar, a far-right Islamophobic page
On Twitter Mr Lucey follows
London-Infidel (formerly EDL), a far right, racist account
Noisykafir, a racist account
EDL Northwest, a racist account belong to the English Defence League
Ingrid Carlqvist, a culture wars journalist
Barenakedislam, an Islamophobic and otherwise discriminatory account
CreepingSharia, an Islamophobic account
Mr Lucey’s Twitter profile sports a photo of Mr Lucey and Mark Steyn, and elsewhere he encourages readers to buy Mark Steyn’s books. Steyn is an extreme right wing commentator who subscribes to a ‘culture wars’ interpretation of Islam.
On Facebook, Mr Lucey has also shared links to at least two Islamophobic articles while Mayor:
“Is the United Kingdom an Islamist Colony” on GatesstoneInstitute.org
“We Are the Bollards” on Steynonline.com
Both the articles and websites contain Islamophobic and racist tropes commonly use by extremist and racist organisations on the far right of politics.
Mr Lucey repeated one of these tropes on the Facebook page of The Wokingham Paper and deleted it when challenged.
Mr Lucey clearly has an unhealthy interest in parts of the political spectrum which disgust and repulse fair minded people.
A person with these views should not be representing our town and should not be visiting schools or charities and should never, ever, have been selected as town mayor.
That he has become mayor is a source of deep and abiding shame for all who love Wokingham and all who oppose any form of discrimination and prejudice.
Mr Lucey must resign as Mayor, immediately."
The Tory Mayor - whose Wokingham borough shares territory with Theresa May's Parliamentary Constituency of Maidenhead - was quick to delete his Twitter and Facebook accounts following the news of his online sludge began to surface. The disgraced Mayor apologised, before immediately resigning both his post as Mayor and his membership of the Conservative party. He said that following the exposure of his online activity, his continued membership of the party was "untenable". https://twitter.com/Blackham_/status/989173737525301249 While the exact content of Lucey's posts is yet to be released, it seems likely that this may well be yet another chapter in the story of Tory members getting caught out spouting bare-faced racism, Islamaphobia and having general disregard for fellow human beings. https://twitter.com/ChronCourtney/status/989173658798231552 https://twitter.com/devoncatt/status/989158606741344256 https://twitter.com/UNISONWestBerks/status/989197651362172928 The sorry tale may not come as much of a surprise to many from Wokingham. The only Labour councillor on the local council, Andy Croy, knows the state of his Conservative cohort only too well. https://twitter.com/AndyCroy/status/988332220170596353 At the moment, Croy is only one Labour Councillor on the Wokingham Borough Council. And when the rest of the Tory-led Council voted for pay rises for themselves, Andy was the only Councillor who voted against them. https://twitter.com/WoodleyLabour/status/989137583568576512 On the 3rd of May 2018, there are local elections in 18 of the 25 Borough wards in Wokingham. If you want a change from Tory Councillors intent on stirring up hate or disregarding the plight of the poor and vulnerable, then make sure you get out and vote.