The leader of Peterborough City Council has resigned following comments made about the Rotherham grooming victims.
Labour council leader Cllr Dennis Jones stepped down from the role after using the phrase 'white trash' to refer to victims of the grooming gang.
The comments were shared via screenshots on social media that revealed Cllr Jones’ conversation with a member of the council’s Independent party, Cllr Daisy Blakemore-Creedon, according to the BBC.
A formal complaint was filed about the incident, and Peterborough City Council yesterday confirmed that Cllr Jones had resigned from the role ‘with immediate effect’, while continuing to act as an independent and a councillor at the local authority.
Cllr Jones has issued a statement since, in which he ‘apologise[s] wholeheartedly’ for offence caused by the remarks.
Opponents are said to have questioned the Labour group’s authority following Cllr Jones’ exit, with Cllr Christian Hogg, leader of the Liberal Democrats in Peterborough reportedly suggesting that ‘Labour needs to rethink if they really have the capacity to run the council’.
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