Ramsgate: Ukip deputy mayor Cllr Sarah Larkins forced to resign
Published: 00:00, 21 September 2016
Updated: 17:15, 21 September 2016
A Ukip councillor is facing a formal call to resign as deputy mayor of Ramsgate Town Council after remarks she made about the London mayoral race on social media.
Cllr Sarah Larkins urged voters to elect “anyone but a Muslim” in a post on Ukip's LGBTQ Facebook page.
Cllr Larkins has now been told by a standards committee she should prepare an unequivocal public apology for her conduct, which has to be read out at council meetings at both Ramsgate Town Council and Thanet District Council.
Both councils have also been told they must issue a formal censure against Cllr Larkins because she brought her role as a councillor into disrepute.
The Eastcliff Ward councillor offered an apology for her comments but, following six complaints to Thanet District Council, a hearing of the standards sub-committee took place on Wednesday, September 7.
It said: "The hearing found that Cllr Larkins failed to comply with the council’s code of conduct when she made a discriminatory comment regarding the election for the Mayor of London on a social media website."
The hearing also recommended that she is removed from all committees and sub committees.
The results were published in a statement by the council today.
In a statement, the leader of Thanet District Council Chris Wells said: ""In the interests of the reputation of our council we support the upholding of the standards contained within our members' code, which reflects the expected standards for those in public life.
"Therefore we must support sanctions to make them effective."
He added:"That said, to demand a repeat of an unreserved apology given at the time of the incident is somewhat pedantic, and enacting a new sanction which, I trust in the interests of justice, will be used against others in the future."
"As Ukip leader at Thanet council, I must support the recommendations as they apply to membership of this council, as does Sarah.
"The recommendations to Ramsgate Town Council are for them, as an authority in their own right, to consider for themselves."
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