Kent county councillor Barry Lewis on being deselected by Labour

Kent county councillor Barry Lewis on being deselected by Labour over 'concerning' remarks and election betting

Transcript

00:00He's been representing Margate at the county council since 2017 and a Labour member for

00:05more than 30 years. Barry Lewis has now been deselected over concerning remarks. According

00:12to paperwork, he's said to have told a party colleague following an LGBTQ plus event last

00:16November that he had secured the gay vote. Last June, another senior member of the Labour

00:21team said Councillor Lewis was excited about having a Nigerian person on board. He is said

00:27to have claimed he had 200 Nigerians in his pocket. And on another occasion in the run

00:32up to this year's general election, he's alleged to have told an organiser he used third persons

00:37to place bets on elections. So you've been deselected as a candidate for the Labour Party.

00:42There was an investigation and they raised three issues. Do you dispute those? I think

00:48they were misinterpreted on purpose. The three issues were said in private. Two of them were

00:56jokes and one they were enquiring why I was banned from gambling 10 years ago in betting

01:04shops, which is to me irrelevant. This is a witch hunt. Some people might say some of

01:10the wording used could have been seen as offensive. Would you say that was the case? I would deny

01:15that completely. Only people that want to see wrong, it says more about them than it

01:23does about me. The Labour Party has declined to comment on this investigation. But as Councillor

01:29Lewis entered a council meeting today, he's still a party member, but he says he's considering

01:34his position in the group. It's like coming out of a bad marriage. You wish it was what

01:38it was when it started. But after 47 years, I'm enjoying the freedom. Gabriel Morris in Maidstone.