A parish council candidate accused of making racist, sexist and homophobic posts on his social media has been suspended from the Conservative Party.
Glenn Tingle, who was a conservative councillor at Old Catton Parish Council and is also standing for Sprowston Town Council's South East Ward by-election on Thursday, was accused of making a series of posts across his social media channels that were branded "disgusting" by a Labour district councillor.
On Monday evening, the local conservative federation held an emergency meeting where members unanimously decided to suspend Mr Tingle from the party with immediate effect.
Simon Jones, chairman of the Norwich Conservative Federation, said: "This means he will not be able to represent the Conservative party going forward or attend any function organised by the Conservative Party.
"The executive has also stated ‘they find the views expressed unacceptable and will not tolerate them from members of the Norwich Conservative Party’."
Mr Tingle's Facebook account included posts that imply all women have mental illnesses, that black footballers should get on their knees and beg the nation forgiveness after missing penalties at the Euro finals and suggestions that women can't drive.
Mr Jones said Mr Tingle would still appear on the ballot paper on Thursday as a conservative candidate because it was now too late to withdraw him.
He added that asking the council to reprint the ballots would be inappropriate due to the costs involved for the taxpayer.
Speaking to the local democracy reporting service yesterday, Mr Tingle apologised for his posts - two days after saying he "did not care" what people thought.
Mr Tingle’s Facebook page no longer appears on the site.
He has been contacted for comment but did not respond.
Natasha Harpley, who first raised concerns about Mr Tingle’s social posts history welcomed the news.
“I’m really pleased to hear that the Conservatives have done the right thing and acted swiftly in suspending Mr Tingle once it was brought to their attention – but he should never have been selected in the first place," she said.
“I hope in the future the Conservatives will do proper due diligence on their candidates to prevent more woefully inappropriate people being selected for them."
Ms Harpley wished this could have aired sooner so people were not confused if they were voting for a Conservative or not.
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