Councillor set to quit after spreading Southport rumour in Welsh Tory group chat
Emily Price
A councillor who shared Tommy Robinson content online is preparing to quit his role after spreading misinformation about the Southport killings in a Welsh Tory group chat.
Bay of Colwyn Town Councillor Phillip Ashe sent a message to the Aberconwy Supporters Group WhatsApp chat with false claims about the ethnicity of a man who was arrested in the Merseyside town before riots broke out.
Mr Ashe told the Conservative group chat: “It started because a muslim man with a balaclava and a knife was arrested yards from the visual for the children this evening that’s why it’s kicked off.”
The anonymous source who leaked the screen grab described the Tory councillor as an “odious member of the group always spouting hate and division”.
Violence
Mr Ashe told Nation.Cymru he sent the message because the man in the picture online who was arrested “looked like a Muslim”.
But the man was in fact not Muslim – he was named by Merseyside police as Jordan Davies, a local who was charged with possession of a knife minutes before a mob launched a night of violence.
The WhatsApp group consists of 37 members including Tory staffers, councillors and at least one Welsh Conservative MS, Janet Finch-Saunders, who can be seen in the chat prompting Mr Ashe to call her after he makes the false claim.
Nation.Cymru asked Mr Ashe whether he was reprimanded by Ms Finch-Saunders for spreading misinformation in the wake of the tragic Southport dance class murders.
The Tory Councillor said he didn’t call her back because, “what would I talk to her about”.
Ms Finch-Saunders told Nation.Cymru that at the time of receiving the message, she had no knowledge of the riots or what Mr Ashe was referring to because she was attending to an unwell relative and hadn’t seen the news.
She added that Mr Ashe still hadn’t responded to her request for a call.
False claims
On Thursday (Aug 1) Nation.Cymru reported how the town councillor had been sharing Tommy Robinson content on social media, including the banned documentary ‘Silenced” which repeats false claims about a Syrian refugee.
As chairman of Llandudno Pub Watch and vice-chairman of West Conwy Pub Watch, Mr Ashe hit the headlines last year when he banned former First Minister Mark Drakeford from pubs in north Wales.
Mr Ashe told Nation.Cymru he was “ashamed and embarrassed” about how his social media activity had “come across” adding that he is “not far-right or a Tommy Robinson supporter”.
In light of the newly surfaced screen grab, we asked Mr Ashe whether he agreed that stoking misinformation as an elected representative could create an Islamaphobic backlash.
Mr Ashe said: “I don’t support Tommy Robinson, I’m far from far-right, I just want to make a better life for my kids.
“The Southport events made me sick – I can’t believe it happened in our country, I really can’t. With two little kids and what’s happened this morning I’m being completely honest, I don’t want to be involved in any of this anymore.”
Although Mr Ashe said he felt our coverage was perfectly true and balanced, he claimed that he had received threats and as a result planned to step down from the town council because “it’s not worth it”.
He said: “My cousin is a Muslim. I don’t have any issues with anyone. But I have issues with people threatening me and my kids.
“People do far worse, I’ve got two kids to think about. It’s not worth it to me.”
Injured
The Southport riots saw 53 police officers injured, vehicles set on fire and walls torn apart after rumours were spread online suggesting the man accused of killing three children was a Muslim refugee who had arrived in the UK on a small boat in 2023.
The suspect – later named by police as 17 year old Axel Muganwa Rudakubana – was in fact born in Cardiff to parents who had migrated from Rwanda, a country that is not Islamic.
A number of experts say misinformation was used by a “vocal minority” to sow division and “fuel their own agenda and trigger a summer of thrill-seeking impulsive insurrection”.
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Sharing TR content was innocent cos he thought someone “looked” a wrong un.
Yeah.
Not much leeway there. TR has one aim. Repeat that content and you are part of the problem.
It “kicked off” because people are pushing this rubbish and misinfo, it kicked off because “patriots”(small p) wanted to attack certain people because that is what they are. Unfortunately many are swept up in the misinfo but they are part of it.
Putin is loving this no doubt, looks like the “patriots” are attacking our police force and cities again this evening.
‘… and at least one Welsh Conservative MS, Janet Finch-Saunders, who can be seen in the chat prompting Mr Ashe to call her after he makes the false claim.’
She might of course have been prompting him to call her in order to give him sage advice around making wild and unsubstantiated assertions.
On the other hand, having often observed her in verbal action in the Senedd …. !
Have the conservative put out a statement distancing from this? Last night the racist patriots set fire to a police station and cars and wrecked part of Sunderland. I know ARTD is off on one with halal meat now targeting all councils in Wales with a second letter but announced with gusto on his official twitter account, I can only think of one reason he is doing this.
Surely they must all distance them selves from this given the way this is going.
It says he has 2 children in fact he has 8, he can’t be arsed with the other 6