A Conservative councillor who works as a parliamentary assistant to a former Government minister has been expelled from the Tory Party.
Mirror cracked it: how the newspaper broke the Slator story
Shaun Slator, elected to Bromley Council last May for St Mary Cray ward, was fiercely criticised for posting “despicable” rape-shaming comments on social media last December. Labour MP Jess Phillips described Slator’s comments as “dangerous and stupid”.
Slator was chair of the Bromley and Chislehurst Conservative Association. He says he will appeal against the expulsion. Slator’s profile has been erased from the Bromley and Chislehurst Conservatives constituency website, where the MP is Sir Bob Neil.
Slator remains listed on the House of Commons website as being employed as an assistant to Jackie Doyle-Price, the MP for Thurrock. Doyle-Price was a minister while Liz Truss was Prime Minister.
A party spokesperson said, “The Conservative Party has an established code of conduct and formal processes where complaints can be made in confidence. This process is rightly confidential.
“Following the conclusion of this process, Councillor Slator has been expelled.”
Slator has not resigned from the council, and he will continue as an independent councillor.
Slator was suspended from the Bromley Council Conservative group in January after he responded to a crime report about a woman raped in a park in Plumstead with a tweet that said: “More likely that it’s a punter that didn’t pay”.
The News Shopper newspaper reports that Slator had previously tweeted that “a bunch of” people on the Conservative benches in Parliament were involved in “noncing and legalised drugs”.
Bromley Council received 18 complaints about Slator’s conduct after his tweet about the Plumstead rape, but has taken no disciplinary action under its code of conduct, as it was claimed that he was not acting in his capacity as a councillor when he posted the tweet.
‘Vile attitude’: expelled Tory Shaun Slator remains listed as a parliamentary employee of Thurrock’s Conservative MP Jackie Doyle-Price
Tory party colleagues described Slator’s remarks as “vile attitudes”.
Slator apologised at a council meeting in February, claiming his intention had been to highlight the issue of sexual exploitation in Plumstead.
Bromley’s Labour and Liberal Democrats councillors condemned Slator and called on him to resign. “Someone with his views and judgements has no place representing constituents in Bromley,” the LibDems said.
“All violence against women and girls needs to be condemned unequivocally.”
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