Tory Councillor: people with different accents are “scary”

Local Tory Councillor Gaynor Sinar has had to apologise after blaming local Labour canvassers for a rise in burglaries in her Cheshire ward.

In a tweet, Cllr Sinar linked a rise in crime with the fact some Labour canvassers had accents from nearby Liverpool:

“How to lose a vote 102 – ship in Liverpool Momentum to Northwich. After a few burglaries and drugs incidents traced back to Liverpool over the past few years, we prefer to see local people leafleting and canvassing.”

However, in an attempt to take her foot out of her mouth, Cllr Sinar only succeeded in stuffing her other foot in there as well, alongside the other.

Explaining she had been misunderstood, and had not meant to insult people from Liverpool, the hapless Councillor went on to clarify that her problem wasn’t just with people with Liverpool accents, it was with people with any accent at all other than the local:

“It does not matter whether they are from Liverpool – it is just the fact that they have got a different accent. It just happens to be that they were from Liverpool.

If they were from Birmingham or Manchester or anywhere else it might have been a bit scary for people in Winnington when they have had break-ins. I think it would be better if they had local people canvassing.”

Aha, as Alan Partridge would say. So that’s all right then.

PS. Another example of the Tories getting so desperate, as a strategy they’re going all Royston Vasey in the run up to the local elections (this election leaflet is real):