Welsh Conservative staffer thrown out of council meeting over immigration comments

Emily Price 

The Welsh Conservative staffer behind Senedd Member Andrew RT Davies’ X account has been removed from a council meeting after being accused of making misleading statements about immigration.

George Carroll, leader of the Tory group on Vale of Glamorgan Council, was asked to leave the meeting on Monday (September 29) during a row about motion he had submitted.

The motion called on the Cabinet to “sever all ties” with City of Sanctuary UK and revoke the Vale’s County of Sanctuary status.

The ‘County of Sanctuary For All’ policy aims to provide “a place of sanctuary for those fleeing oppression, persecution and war in their home country”.

The policy includes a pledge to offer a welcoming place to live to not only asylum seekers – but to also anyone facing “bullying, harassment and intimidation because of any protected characteristic such as race, gender, sexual orientation, disability or religious belief”.

Children

Cllr Carroll’s motion also called on the the cabinet to condemn the City of Sanctuary’s ‘Schools of Sanctuary’ initiative.

The scheme aims to support schools to become welcoming places for all children – including children that are new to the country.

Cllr Carroll’s motion highlighted claims circulated online over the summer that under the scheme children as young as five were being forced to write Valentine cards to migrant men.

The Schools of Sanctuary charity have disputed this, saying pupils had written short anonymous messages such as “welcome to our town” – some of which were displayed in local refugee support groups.

Cllr Carroll represents Llandough on the council and has been employed by former Welsh Tory leader Andrew RT Davies for several years as his chief aide, overseeing Davies’ social media accounts.

Refugees

In recent weeks, several posts have been published to Davies’ X backing protests in the Vale of Glamorgan against a hotel being used to house Afghan refugees.

It’s understood that the majority of the refugees staying at the Holiday Inn are children, most of whom have spent the last few years in settlement camps.

Vale of Glamorgan Council Leader Lis Burnett said she was “disappointed” to see Cllr Carroll’s motion, adding that she couldn’t find “a single part of it which may be even loosely called accurate”.

During the debate, the Welsh Conservative councillor claimed that asylum seekers getting in to a small boat in France were “not fleeing persecution”, but were “fleeing a safe country”.

Councillors called for Carroll to correct the record and confirm that asylum seekers can claim asylum in any country, “not necessarily the country next to the one they are fleeing”.

Labour Councillor Ruba Sivagnanam pointed out that under international law, people seeking asylum can seek asylum in the country “they want to” and are not required to stay in the first country they land in.

‘Disgrace’

Opposition councillors could be heard branding Cllr Carroll a “disgrace”.

He hit back saying that the “irresponsible” contributions made during the debate by some councillors indicated that they “support open borders”.

Plaid Cymru Group Leader, Cllr Dr Ian Johnson argued that the Tory councillor had “misrepresented large swathes of the debate”.

Mayor of the Vale of Glamorgan and Chair, Naomi Marshallsea, called on Cllr Carroll to retract his statement because he had inferred that the general consensus of the council “wanted open boarders”.

The Tory Councillor argued that he hadn’t named any members, and that he stood by his point that “many members of the authority appear to favour the consensus of open borders”.

After taking the advise of council officers sat alongside Cllr Marshallsea, she noted that during the debate there hadn’t been “one comment” from other councillors indicating they favoured open borders.

She called on Cllr Carroll to either retract the comment or leave the chamber.

The Conservative group leader argued that he was “entitled” to his opinion.

Cllr Marshallsea went on to ask Cllr Carrol five times to either retract his misleading statement or leave the room.

She said: “Cllr Carroll you have two options. Do I need to count to five?”

‘Hate filled’

Cllr Carroll continued to row with the council chair for several minutes before eventually leaving the chamber.

His motion was later voted down, with only 3 councillors voting in favour of it, whilst 34 voted against and 3 abstained.

Council leader Lis Burnett said that the Vale had refused to sign up to Cllr Carroll’s “hate filled motion”.

She said: “Having destroyed the Tory administration in 2019 he know can only manage two votes for his own group. I’m not sure where that leaves him.”

The clip of Andrew RT Davies’ staffer being asked to leave the council meeting later went viral on X when it was shared by the right-wing account ‘Doge Wales’.

The account is thought to be associated with Cllr Carroll’s close friend and ally – Ross England who gained notoriety after he was accused by a judge of deliberately sabotaging a rape trial in 2018 causing it to collapse.

At a retrial the defendant, a friend of England’s called James Hackett, was convicted and jailed for five years.

Andrew RT Davies and Doge Wales frequently interact with each other on X.

Nation.Cymru has previously asked the Tory Senedd Member to confirm whether the account was being run by Ross England – but he did not respond.

A Vale of Glamorgan Council spokesperson said: “At a meeting of all Councillors, the Mayor ruled on a point of order and asked Cllr Carroll to withdraw a remark.

“When he did not, in line with the Council’s Constitution, the Mayor asked Cllr Carroll to leave the Council Chamber and the meeting continued as normal.

“This will be recorded in the form of a decision notice and within the meeting minutes. No further action is being taken.”