A candidate who is under investigation over a string of offensive social media posts, including suggesting an MP should be “bullied back to Pakistan”, has been elected on to Harrow Council.
Will Jackson was suspended by the Conservative Party just weeks ahead of the vote but still managed to win his seat.
Cllr Jackson was elected to represent one of the two seats in the ward of North Harrow despite an on-going investigation by the Conservatives into comments which come from an account associated with him. It responded to posts by several non-white MPs on social media platform X with highly offensive remarks.
The party suspended him and withdrew support for his campaign but, due to him already being listed on the ballot paper, still stood next to a Conservative banner. He got 1,230 votes, winning one of the two available seats in the ward alongside Conservative candidate Cllr Anola Savjani.
Following the result, the Conservatives have said that Cllr Jackson “remains suspended” from the party whilst the investigation into his alleged social media comments is on-going.
A Conservative Party spokesman told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS): “During this investigation, he is not permitted to join the Conservative Group on Harrow Council. The Conservative Party’s disciplinary process is rightly confidential and we will not be providing a running commentary.”
In one post, the account that appears to be from the councillor replied to British-born Your Party MP Zarah Sultana, calling to “abolish all foreign MPs”, as well as suggesting the Independent MP for Birmingham Perry Barr, Ayoub Khan, should “go back to Pakistan”.
The account also sent several derogatory and offensive posts targeting another Independent MP, Adnan Hussain who represents the Blackburn constituency. It referred to him in one comment as “Islamist scum” and suggested he “should be deported”. In other posts it referred to Hussain as “the Pakistani MP” and that he should “bully you back to Pakistan”.
Leader of Harrow Labour, Cllr David Perry – who was once again re-elected after a tightly fought contest in the Marlborough ward – said: “I was very disappointed to see our own local Labour candidates in North Harrow defeated, James Watkins and Sechi Kailasa. Both ran a positive campaign and conducted many petitions to champion local issues in the area.
“While Labour candidates were talking to residents and raising issues with the council, the Conservative candidate was more interested in posting harmful and bigoted content online about Harrow’s diverse communities”.
Another Conservative candidate that was suspended by the party ahead of the elections, Nathan Smith, was not elected. He was also under investigation for alleged offensive social media posts but was defeated by two Labour candidates in the ward of West Harrow.
The election results were positive for the Conservatives, managing to increase the number of seats it holds on Harrow Council by 11. Despite already having a healthy majority, the party took 42 of the 55 available seats.
Following a trend seen across London, it was a bruising night for Labour in Harrow. The party won just 12 seats – half as many as they were able to win at the previous elections in 2022. The results also saw new political party Arise win its first seat – with Pamela Fitzpatrick taking one of the three Marlborough ward seats alongside Cllr Perry and Labour’s Varsha Parmar.
