Reform councillor under pressure over voicemail comments

PRESSURE is mounting on a Reform councillor after he made comments about the Pakistani community in a voicemail he left on an ITV journalist's phone.

- BRYANA FRANCIS Reporter [e-mail]

Councillor Andrew Barry, of Merthyr Tydfil council, became a Reform councillor last month, having previously served as an independent.

In his short stint in the party, the councillor has already been criticised after Nation.Cymru revealed offensive Facebook posts in which the Reform member called Puerto Rico a “third world s*** hole” in 2013.

The seemingly inadvertent voicemail was left on a journalist's phone on Wednesday, June 18, ITV Wales reported. In the voicemail, Cllr Barry can be heard speaking to an unknown individual about housing and the benefits system.

He said: “They're putting the immigrants in the HMOs. They're everywhere. The problem we've got, no-one's interested... (inaudible).