For Britain’s only councillor banned from Stoke council premises

Sarah Archibald - 20 06 18

The far-right For Britain Movement’s only local authority councillor has been banned from the premises of the council on which he sits.

Richard Broughan can now only attend meetings of Stoke City Council after receiving the three-month ban following a dispute at a local pub in October 2016.

The Stoke Sentinel has reported that the complainant, Frank Buxton, said Broughan was “intoxicated” and “swearing loudly”.

A hearing of the council’s standards committee heard Broughan then presented Mr Buxton with his council business card outside the pub and threatened to have it closed down.

Broughan denied the latter allegation, but the complainant’s statement was supported by evidence given to the local authority’s investigator by the landlord and his daughter.

Cautioned for assault

Once embraced by UKIP and Paul Nuttall, Richard Broughan now stands for Anne Marie Waters’ For Britain.

A second complaint against Broughan was also partially upheld by the committee. This centred on an incident in which the serially-controversial councillor accepted a police caution for assault, was ordered to pay £100 compensation and to attend an alcohol management course.

The victim of the assault said Broughan was “highly intoxicated” and subjected him to both verbal and physical abuse. However, the committee deemed he had not been acting in his capacity as a councillor when he assaulted the complainant in a chip shop.

As well as the premises ban, Broughan was ordered to apologise to the complainants and to the chip shop manager.

From UKIP to Independent to For Britain

Broughan only sits under the For Britain banner through one of those quirks of Britain’s electoral system.

He was actually elected in May 2015 when he was a member of the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP). Within four months the party had suspended him. This followed him joking on Twitter about the death of 71 migrants in a refrigerated lorry.

Despite later quitting the party, he then campaigned for then-UKIP leader Paul Nuttall in his ill-fated 2017 general election campaign in Stoke. In the meantime, he’d told a member of public on Facebook that they were “intellectually challenged”, for which he later had to apologise.

Happy hour: Broughan and former UKIP leader Paul Nuttall.

He joined the city’s City Independents group, itself not short of controversy. Its representation on the council includes former British National Party (BNP) councillor, Melanie Baddeley, and convicted sex offender, Lee Wanger.

Sexual remark, suspension and expulsion

Unbelievably a year after joining this new group, Broughan managed to earn himself a 12-month suspension from it.

This was after he made a “sexual remark” about a woman at a family Christmas event he attended in his role as a councillor.

At the same event he was also accused of drinking brandy in an alcohol exclusion zone. He told a PCSO who responded to complaints from the public that “I’m always at work and I’m always drinking.”

Following the chip shop assault, he was expelled from the City Independents in March. Also cited was his support of Knights Templar International, the far-right group run by Britain First founder Jim Dowson, which has been implicated in the supply of military equipment to Serb militias.

Anne Marie Waters, leader of For Britain

Despite his many ‘indiscretions’, Broughan now appears to have been embraced by Anne Marie Waters. His official profile on Stoke City Council’s website lists his party as For Britain.

So, he’s:

  • Been cautioned for assault
  • Joked about the tragic deaths of 71 people
  • Made a lewd remark to a woman at a Christmas-do
  • Allegedly breached local by-laws by drinking in an alcohol exclusion zone
  • Been suspended by two parties and expelled from one
  • Expressed support for an international, militia-supporting far-right group

In reality there are few other homes on the UK’s political market willing to house such a reactionary and toxic individual. Except For Britain.

To add to Anne Marie Waters’ woe, the venue booked for the party’s 28 June meeting in Stoke has now pulled permission for the event, saying it doesn’t support any far-right groups or Islamophobes.

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