Welsh council deputy leader quits after saying 'all Tories should be shot'
The deputy leader of a Welsh council has quit after saying that 'all Tories should be shot'
Isle of Anglesey County Council
The deputy leader of a Welsh council has quit after saying that "all Tories should be shot" in area where one Tory MP wears a stab vest to constituency surgeries.
Ieuan Williams, who represents Lligwy as an independent, made the comment at an internal Anglesey council meeting on Monday.
The councillor said he was "angry and emotional" about poverty when he made the "crass remark".
Conservative MP for the Isle of Anglesey Virginia Crosbie, who wears a stab vest when meeting her constituents because of concerns for her safety, said that it was an "appalling comment".
Conservative MP for the Isle of Anglesey Virginia Crosbie said that it was an 'appalling comment'
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The comments came almost exactly seven years since Labour MP Jo Cox was murdered.
Williams says he had referred himself to the Standards Committee and apologised "profusely" for any offence caused by the "inappropriate comment".
He said: "The remark was made at the end of an emotionally charged statement, following a presentation on poverty on Anglesey.
"I am obviously not advocating shooting anyone and have apologised to all members present at the meeting.
"I have also referred myself to the Standards Committee and have stood down as deputy leader and member of the executive whilst any potential investigation takes place.”
He added: "This is not about any one individual. The real issue at hand here is what made me so angry and emotional in the first instance. We have a 99 per cent increase in food bank usage on Anglesey in the three months since November 2022."
Crosbie said she began wearing a stab vest during constituency surgeries in the wake of the murder of Sir David Amess in October 2021 and she has also hired security guards when attending the events.
In December 2021 she also received a letter with a drawing of a noose and the words "traitors hang" at her Anglesey office on December 23.
"I am disgusted that an Ynys Môn councillor feels able to say such a thing in a meeting. It is the least Ieuan Williams could have done to stand down from his role as deputy leader of the council following his appalling comment," she told the WalesOnline.
"The leader of the council now needs to get her house in order and stop this behaviour.
"This sort of nastiness has been going on since I was elected and it comes almost exclusively from Plaid Cymru councillors and those who, like councillor Williams, pretend they are independent but are Plaid to their bones.
"This is not the rough and tumble of political life, this is out and out hate."