Councillor Pat Marsh, the most senior Libdem in Harrogate and Knaresborough has been exposed for making antisemitic tweets, over many weeks.
She was elected to represent Stray, Woodlands and Hookstone Division on North Yorkshire County Council in May 2022
Cllr Marsh is the chair of both the Harrogate and Knaresborough Area Constituency Committee and the Harrogate and Knaresborough Area Constituency Planning Committee.
Cllr Pat Marsh said:
I am sorry if I have offended people by saying it was evil to kill innocent children and for asking that the world comes together to stop the slaughter and abuse of so many innocent children.
Why is free speech so horrendous?
The matter was also featured in the House of Commons this evening during a ministerial statement by Chris Philp (Home Officer) on antisemitism, with Andrew Jones MP contributing to the debate:
Andrew Jones MP made a statement in the House of Commons that the most senior Libdem councillor in Harrogate & Knaresborough has been exposed for tweeting the horrendous antisemitic comments for the past 5-weeks.
She has 100’s of followers, including many senior local Liberal Democrats, and tweeted over 500 times with the tweets being read over 10,000 times.
It beggars belief that no Liberal Democrat knew what she was say – they must have known what she was doing.
Andrew Jones MP said:
Councillor Marsh chose to express herself in clearly antisemitic terms. It is reasonable to assume that because of the repeated language she uses over a sustained period that these are her real views.
I was shocked and appalled by her views. I was shocked too that she has been doing this nearly a month and it seems no-one in the Liberal Democrats sought to stop her from doing so or questioned it.
They must have known; she has hundreds of followers on Twitter among them were senior local Liberal Democrats. She has secured invites as her civic guest to constituency events for Tom Gordon, their Parliamentary candidate. She was the most senior elected Liberal Democrat in Harrogate and Knaresborough chairing the planning committee and the area committee. They must have known.
I have raised concerns over Councillor Marsh’s behaviour with Ed Davey, their party leader in Westminster, in relation to an earlier breach of councillor standards. Since December last year I have written to him four times identifying appalling behaviour by other local Liberal Democrats too. He didn’t even reply to my letters. Perhaps he might reflect on that.
There was an opportunity for him to act on these complaints and sort out the problems which have taken hold of the local Liberal Democrats of which these tweets are the most serious and appalling manifestation.
North Yorkshire Council’s chief executive, Richard Flinton, said:
I can confirm that our monitoring officer has received a complaint and will look at it in line with the council’s agreed code of conduct complaints procedure.
In North Yorkshire we expect our elected members and officers to demonstrate strong and positive values and behaviours. Any complaints about comments that do not meet these standards will therefore be taken seriously.
Cllr Marsh has been suspended by the Libdem Party.
Tom Gordon, spokesperson for Harrogate and Knaresborough Libdems, and their prospective parliamentary candidate has been approach for comment.
We haven’t received a comment from Tom Gordon, but have from the central communications of the Libdems.
A Lib Dem spokesperson said:
These appalling antisemitic views have no place in our party and Ms Marsh has been suspended.She has been removed from the council group today and has been reported to the council’s Standards Officer.Ms Marsh was removed from her role in the party long before Andrew Jones made a comment.Andrew Jones had never raised these appalling remarks with the Liberal Democrats, until this afternoon in a press comment.These antisemitic views have no place in our party or our country.
