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Councillor exits housing association board after comments blaming BAME community for local lockdown
A councillor has left the board of a housing association in the North West after he made social media comments blaming the “BAME community” and “illegal immigrants” for the rise in coronavirus cases.
Bob Allen will no longer sit on the board of Bolton at Home and Bolton Council will be nominating a replacement, the landlord has said.
He has been suspended from the local Conservative group but remains a councillor.
Jon Lord, chief executive of Bolton at Home, said: “Councillor Allen was nominated to our board by Bolton Council.
“Following recent discussions between Bolton at Home and the council, it can be confirmed that this is no longer the case and the council will be making a new nomination in due course.”
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In a Facebook post on 31 July, Mr Allen said: “Don’t penalise me over the increase in Covid cases in Greater Manchester.
“I’ve stuck to the rules for 4 long months. Blame the 48,000 illegal immigrants, the BAME community and the morons that never obey the rules.
“Blame the PHE [Public Health England] idiots who wrongly advised us, blame NHS managers who were totally unprepared, blame the Chinese for concealing the true facts, and blame the government for not stopping thousands of flights into the UK from infected countries. We are being led by donkeys.”
The post – made shortly after COVID-19 lockdown measures were reimposed in Greater Manchester and other parts of the North West and West Yorkshire – has not been deleted.
Bolton Council said it would not be making a formal statement but confirmed that Mr Allen has left Bolton at Home’s board and suspended from the Conservative group.
Inside Housing has made attempts to contact Mr Allen for comment.
Last week, Mr Allen told MyBolton and The Manchester Evening News that his comments had been taken out of context.
He said: “Some of the BAME community are responsible, but it was wrong of me to say the whole community.
“For various reasons, the BAME community must take some responsibility, as must Public Health England and the government.
“Everyone must share some blame for the fact we are in lockdown. I stand by the sentiment, but I could have worded it better.
“I did not mean to blame the whole of the BAME community but some of it, yes, as with some of the morons who have been on the beach and attending illegal raves.”
Councils often nominate councillors to represent them on the boards of housing associations formed through a transfer of the local authority’s housing stock.
Bolton at Home was formed through the transfer of more than 18,000 homes from Bolton Council in 2011.
