The Pendle Conservative Party today decided to reinstate Cllr Rosemary Carroll, after she was suspended from the Conservative Party in June 2017 for sharing a racist 'joke', which compared Asians to 'dogs' and said that this would be an automatic right to claim benefits. Racism has no place in our political discourse, and she should have resigned back in June 2017, but didn't. She is still censored from all committee's on Pendle Borough Council until November 2018. 

However, at the local election count today, the Pendle Conservatives reinstated Cllr Rosemary Carroll so that they would have enough Tory councillors in order to take overall control of Pendle Borough Council as they knew that the council would continue to be in 'no overall control'. The new leader of Pendle Council, Paul White, was pictured with Rosemary Carroll smiling with his arm around her only minutes after. This desperate power grab shows how low the Conservatives are willing to go in order to gain control, and they have also shown they are willing to rely upon racists in order to do this.

When the incident occurred, Cllr Joe Cooney (the Tory leader at the time) stated that "we will not tolerate racism in any form. Rosemary Carroll has been suspended". Yesterday, when the new Tory leader was asked about her reinstatement he said that the post was shared "in error". Let me be clear, racism is not made by mistake or in error, it is calculated. Brandon Lewis, the Conservative Party chairman brought out the 'respect pledge' for Conservative candidates - which after recent events, seems to have been abandoned, given that Mr Lewis praised the Conservatives for taking overall control of Pendle Council - by reinstating the racist councillor. 

This petition calls on Cllr Rosemary Carroll to resign her seat (Earby Ward) on Pendle Borough Council, and calls on the Conservatives to expel her from the party for good.