Councillor apologises for ‘foolish’ Nazi salute
Councillor Andy Neal, who represents Mildenhall, admitted to the salute, saying it was ‘foolish’ but a ‘misunderstanding
A councillor has apologised for a ‘foolish’ Nazi salute, but said it was a misunderstanding.
Cllr Andy Neal has been told to apologise, by West Suffolk Council’s standards committee, after doing the Nazi salute and saying ‘Sieg Heil’ to another councillor, before a meeting on July 14.
The committee, which discussed the allegations in private on Tuesday, heard the complainant had told him he could not do it in the chamber or anywhere else, but the councillor did it two more times anyway.
Cllr Neal, who represents Mildenhall, admitted to the salute and the words, saying it was ‘foolish’ but a ‘misunderstanding’.
He also denied doing it several times.
The two councillors had been talking about the protests taking place, as a result of the government’s plans to house asylum seekers at RAF Barnham, which the council had unanimously opposed earlier that month.
Cllr Neal said he had been to the marches to ‘stir trouble’, as a ‘jovial bit of banter’, with a councillor he had joked with before and thought would not take him seriously.
He clarified to the Local Democracy Reporting Service he had never been to any of the protests, or even expressed an opinion publicly about the issue.
“When something is reported to standards, you have to be accountable and I accept that,” he said.
“It was jovial banter, which was not appreciated at that moment in time and for that, I’m sorry.”
The committee noted Cllr Neal’s apology, but said his actions were ‘clumsy, insensitive and inappropriate’.
According to the report, an independent person, who was brought in for an impartial view on the issue, said the councillor’s actions ‘constituted racial hate’ comments or actions and had ‘no place in discussions between colleagues’.
“They considered it was especially shocking that a councillor, a person in a public-facing position, would joke about such a thing,” it said.
Cllr Neal has been told to:
Write a letter of apology to the complainant for any offence caused by his actions. The letter must be in a format approved by the chair of the West Suffolk standards committee. Apologise at the next meeting to full council for his actions. Undertake further training on the Code of Conduct within the next three months.