Various MPs and councillors are calling for the suspension of Lancashire Reform councillor Joel Tetlow on the basis of some rather irresponsible and unsavoury social media posts.
A man in an entirely unrelated constituency, London, called Apapale Adoum was recently charged with murder. Tetlow has decided, on the basis of his name alone, that he was definitely a refugee and/or illegal immigrant – Tetlow being amongst the surprisingly vast number of people who conflate the two.
He captioned the post: “Refugees welcome. Keep them coming in Liebour [sic] are saying. “When will the penny drop for some people?”
Does his name being a bit unfamiliar to many people really automatically make you a refugee? Tetlow doubles down.
When questioned by a commenter on the post, who asked whether having a foreign name makes you a refugee, Mr Tetlow said that it did, in his opinion…
This isn’t his first unpleasant post:.
This is not the first time Cllr Tetlow has come under fire for his social media activity, having previously come under fire for sharing posts comparing illegal immigrants to Nazi’s and comparing Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and Chancellor Rachel Reeves to the Moors Murderers Ian Brady and Myra Hindley.
His colleagues are rightfully unimpressed. Sarah Smith, MP said:
Since being selected as a candidate, he has posted about Hitler, shared memes about the Moors murders, and now made an unfounded claim about a murder suspect based on their name.
…
Nigel Farage should suspend him, and the local party should withdraw the whip. This isn’t complicated.
Tetlow, for his part, is leaning into the standard trope of people’s upset being entirely based on some unfounded conspiracy by the press, claiming that
The media in this country often exhibits a bias against those with right-wing views, while left-wing perspectives are given more leniency.
He of course provides zero evidence to support this assertion – if anything, the opposite is more likely true – but that never stopped anyone of his ilk trying to divert attention from their own bad behaviour.