A Conservative councillor has had to delete comments posted on Facebook comparing the Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn to Adolf Hitler.
Lynden Stowe, of Gloucestershire County Council, is not the first local Conservative politician to insinuate the comparison as of late. EvolvePolitics reported only last month that failed Tory candidate Michelle Lowe had to deny comparing Corbyn to the Nazi leader in a tasteless tweet about the Grenfell Tower tragedy.
After seeing a video of Corbyn receiving a rapturous reception at this year’s Glanstonbury Festival, keyboard warrior Stowe simply could not help himself, commenting underneath:
“The similarities to Hitler are frightening.”
Although Councillor Stowe soon deleted his comment after he received a barrage of criticism for making the baseless comparison, he has told the press that he actually stands by his comments:
“I think that some of Corbyn’s policies and the way he behaves are not dissimilar to some of the ways the National Socialist Party came about.”
Not only that, but Stowe went on to accuse Corbyn and Momentum’s campaign aimed at enthusing the young and the disenfranchised of being a modern day Hitler Youth:
“He’s a proven anti-Semitist (sic). He expounds the sequestration of property. In what he is trying to do with some of the younger people – it’s not dissimilar to Hitler Youth. I don’t like the chap one bit – I think he’s very bad news.”
Tory councillor Lynden Stowe defends comparing @jeremycorbyn to Adolf Hitler and likens his followers to the Hitler Youth. pic.twitter.com/b3LxNxjPPS
— RT UK (@RTUKnews) July 9, 2017
The original video of Jeremy Corbyn at Glastonbury was posted by local resident Peter Hurley. After seeing the absurd comment from Councillor Stowe, he said:
“I think it’s highly disturbing that an elected official should be traipsing on social media to insult people they don’t know what is at best political point scoring and at worst a shocking insult to our fallen troops and anyone who died at the hands of Adolf Hitler.”
Meanwhile, Gloucestershire County Council’s Labour leader Lesley Williams has submitted an official complaint, and has slammed Stowe for his crass remarks:
“I am deeply troubled by these remarks and because they were so public, residents will be alarmed that a man who is in charge of the Gloucestershire economy and the promotion of apprenticeships in our schools could say something so crude and offensive.
It flies in the face of every young person who voted for the first time last month.
As a result I have submitted a complaint against Councillor Stowe over these unfortunate remarks to the monitoring officer, and I have notified the leader of the council of my unhappiness.
The fact that he has yet to apologise just compounds his lack of foresight.”
Only yesterday, EvolvePolitics reported that a Tory councillor quit social media after insulting the victims of the Grenfell Tower fire. It seems like Conservative councillors are dropping like flies on social media as their true colours are finally revealed to the public, and not a moment too soon.
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