Labour councillor's call to 'scrap shirt and tie' through fear of 'offence' branded 'nonsense'

GB News

A Labour Party councillor has been blasted by Reform UK's Oliver Freeston after calling to "revise" their council's shirt and tie dress code.The councillor sparked controversy after urging North Lincolnshire Council to revise it's dress code for public meetings, arguing that requiring a shirt and tie could be "offensive" to certain ethnic and religious groups.FULL STORY HERE.

Transcript

00:00Honestly, it makes you want to rip your hair out.

00:02Now, imagine having the misfortune of having to sit through a council meeting

00:05and listen to this absolute nonsense.

00:08Although I suppose it's true, if they're going to govern like clowns,

00:11then why wouldn't they dress like them?

00:12It's embarrassing.

00:13You know, we've got a white man being offended on behalf of different ethnicities.

00:17But when you actually speak to them and you say,

00:19is there any reason you couldn't wear a shirt and tie?

00:21They go, absolutely not.

00:22So actually, I would say that it's quite offensive to say

00:25that certain ethnicities can't wear a shirt and tie.

00:27Absolute nonsense.

00:29Of course it is.

00:29I mean, it's a standard dress code.

00:32It's a code of conduct.

00:33It's a code of decorum.

00:35It's a code to show that you're ready for work and businesslike.

00:38And we happen to be in the United Kingdom.

00:40What's his plan be?

00:42Well, you dress in a sari?

00:45You tell me.

00:46I don't know what they're going to turn up in next.

00:48Well, I can tell you, if I was the chair of the meeting,

00:50because it's at the chair's discretion,

00:52if anybody turned up without good reason,

00:54I would tell them to leave the meeting and the story,

00:56because we've been elected by our constituents.

00:58If you can't be bothered to put a shirt and tie on

01:00and show the respect to the people who have put you there,

01:03then don't bother coming.

01:04Now, of course, there are exceptions.

01:06There's people who an emergency has come up

01:08or they've got back from work later than they expected.

01:11Fair enough.

01:11We'll make exceptions as one-off.

01:12But to make it a blanket rule of dressing however you like,

01:15absolutely ridiculous and shameful.

01:18Yeah, I mean, you could be like Justin Trudeau.

01:20You could wear a pair of green Adidas trainers to meet the king.

01:23I mean, there is a certain contagion to this lack of dress code,

01:27but on a serious point.

01:29You know, nobody is saying that it should be mandatory

01:32to wear, you know, to strip out your cultural origins,

01:37to comply.

01:39It isn't that.

01:40This isn't this idea of like a French style,

01:43no wearing of any religious attire.

01:47This is a straightforward him taking offence

01:50on behalf of somebody else who...

01:52I mean, has anybody ever complained about this in the past

01:54in this council?

01:56And that's the exact thing that was discussed on the night.

01:59Nobody had ever made a problem over it.

02:01But the sad thing is, I was the lone voice in the chamber

02:04to say this is absolute rubbish.

02:06So afterwards, they said, OK, we'll take a vote

02:08on whether to send this back to a working group

02:10to review the wording to see if it is offensive

02:13and whether it's fit for purpose.

02:14I said, well, let's make it a recorded vote.

02:16I was the sole councillor out of all of them

02:19that said, nonsense, let's play our head.

02:21The Tories joined forces with them,

02:23and that's why they're currently unelectable, both parties.

02:26And what is that about?

02:28Is it just a total fear, a total lack of a backbone?

02:33They just want to keep their heads down.

02:35But, see, the problem with that is that as soon as you just

02:37keep silent, this becomes the new norm.

02:40How long before anybody could turn up in anything

02:42they want to work?

02:43And that is not the way we conduct business in this country.

02:49Exactly that.

02:49People are scared of being offensive,

02:51and that's why I love being part of reform.

02:53I make no qualms about it.

02:54I used to be a conservative.

02:55I joined reform when we were polling 8%, 9% in the party

02:58because I believed in the party's principles

03:01and the convictions, and I had the courage to join.

03:04But we've certainly got to stand up

03:05and we've got to fight back this nonsense.

03:07The fact that reform are polling so well now

03:09shows that actually we've got the majority

03:11or a good swathe of the country behind us.

03:15What I would say, though, is I don't think the majority

03:18of the public are actually aware of the conduct

03:20of their elected members.

03:22Most people don't know who the local councillor is,

03:24and so they don't know what's being said.

03:27Although I suspect if people, if the electorate,

03:29were aware of the comments that were made

03:31by this certain councillor,

03:33he would be getting booted out of office

03:34and it wouldn't be too soon.

03:36And the interesting thing is,

03:37he's actually a ward colleague of mine.

03:38He's another councillor.

03:40I can tell you, next year I'm up for election.

03:42We're going to really work hard

03:43and we're going to be delivering the message

03:44that reform is the serious party.

03:47Well, I'll tell you what,

03:48I think one of the things we're going to see now

03:49about so many reformed councillors out there,

03:51so many reformed councils being taken over by reform,

03:54more and more of these kind of stories coming out.

03:57And I think maybe that's what the general public needs,

03:59just to sort of have the sunlight,

04:02the bleach of sunlight,

04:03to show us what's going on.

04:04That's what I did when in the European Union

04:06just exposed their cocktail parties,

04:08their foreign jaunts,

04:10the wastage,

04:11the £5,000 leather armchairs.

04:13That's your job.

04:14Thanks for joining us, Oliver Friesen.

04:16Thanks for joining us on the show.

04:17Now, we contacted the Labour councillor

04:19in question for a comment

04:21and we haven't received one yet.

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