Labour WhatsApp chat was ‘vile and racist’, says report

Labour councillors made “vile” and “racist” remarks in a WhatsApp group chat that led to the sacking of the Labour minister who prompted the Gorton and Denton by-election, a damning report has found.

- DAVID MADDOX

The fallout from the comments made in a group called “Trigger Me Timbers” last February saw Andrew Gwynne suspended from the Labour Party, after it emerged he wrote that he hoped a 72-year-old female constituent "croaks" before the next general election, after she dared to ask about her bins.

Now, an independent report for Tameside Council by investigator Linda Comstive has concluded that six councillors in the WhatsApp group had shown "complete disregard" for standards in public life, including one judged to have made "several remarks that a reasonable person would find racist".

The findings will be a blow for Labour and come less than four weeks before the Gorton and Denton by-election expected on 26 February, to replace Mr Gwynne, who stepped down last week.