Conservative Councillor Linda Symes, Councillor for Eastney and Craneswater in Portsmouth, this week made several abhorrent and openly racist social media posts seeking to incite racial divisions within our community.

Her posts referred to the (people behind the) Black Lives Matter movement as 'morons' and suggested that the murder of Lee Rigby (RIP) in London by people who were tried and sentenced by the UK Justice System, is comparable to the murder of George Floyd in Minnesota who received no justice. This post sought to use a terrorist attack to justify violence against black people.

Her posts made comparisons between the unlinked killing of a 7-year old girl, by someone immediately detained by the Mental Health Act, with the murder by a police officer of a black man and sought to use the colour of the girl’s skin to spark outrage.

More racially fuelled posts made previously by the councillor insinuated that the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, would keep his job purely based on his ethnicity, and attempted to use his race as a scapegoat for incompetency.

We feel this behaviour is simply unacceptable from anyone, let alone an elected official of Portsmouth Council who decides on local government policy. It has highlighted the Councillors outright xenophobic and racist views in a public forum.

This has been widely covered by local news outlets, however the Councillor remains in office, refuses to apologise and the Conservative party to which she belongs has failed to take action or comment.

We the undersigned demand that The Conservative Party and Portsmouth City Council take immediate action against Councillor Linda Symes. Those in public office should be held to account for their behaviour, especially when their behaviour consists of outright racism and bigotry.

Thank you