Bexley councillor who posted inflammatory Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe tweets suspended
A Bexley Tory councillor who posted a spiteful tweet about a freed Iranian prisoner in May, has been suspended by his party and had to stand down as chairman of governors at a local school.
On May 24, Cllr John Davey – who has courted controversy before with social media posts – responded to a Tweet accusing Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe of ‘playing politics’ on her return from incarceration in the country of her birth, by saying: “Can we ask for a refund? We can send her back as she’s so ungrateful.”
He seemed to be endorsing the post from Anthea Bailey from the day before which said sympathy for Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe had turned to “pure contempt” because she had travelled to Iran against Foreign Office advice.
The refund Mr Davey refers to is the money believed to have been paid by the British government for her release following years of captivity. The Iranian regime is accused of using her as a pawn to recover funds it said was owed by the UK.
On her release, Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe criticised the government for its handling of her case.
The Tweet has since been deleted and the account has been taken down altogether, but not before being seen and criticised as “racist” – creating pressure on for the Bexley Conservatives group to take action.
Today local party chairman Aaron Newberry announced Mr Davey’s suspension from the party.
He said on Twitter: “As Chairman of @ET_Conservative, I have suspended Cllr Davey’s membership locally following a complaint. We have passed this on to the CCHQ complaints team for further action.”
This week, the Bedonwell Federation of infant and junior schools, Belvedere, also announced that Mr Davey was no longer on the board of governors – having been chairman for 10 years.
It is not the first time the West Heath ward councillor has been in the spotlight for remarks made on social media. In June 2020, South London Press reported that he responded to an action plan to tackle racism in the borough proposed by Labour councillor Mabel Ogundayo as “a load of old rubbish”.
He added: “The UK, and Bexley in particular, are the most tolerant in the world. You should worry about the mayor of London’s failure to stop knife crime, much of it black on black.”
A spokesman for Bexley Council said: “We are aware of this issue, which we have referred to the council’s officer responsible for dealing with complaints against councillors.
“The matter is currently under review under the Members’ Code of Conduct complaints handling procedure. A decision will be made in line with the procedure.”
Picture: Bexley council civic offices (Picture: Mx. Granger/Wikimedia Commons)
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