Kirklees Council leader denies authoring racist posts on old account

Summarised from 2 outlets · Updated 22 Oct, 06:32 · Archive

The leader of Kirklees Council has responded to historic racist tweets posted from her former social media account, saying many were not made by her.

The leader of Kirklees Council, Sarah Wood of Reform UK, has responded to historic racist tweets posted from her former Twitter account, 'SarahRileyMusic', which has since been deleted. The posts have sparked backlash among elected members and members of the public.

Among the posts unearthed were tweets linking 'illegal immigrants' to increased rape crime in Germany, describing 'illegal migrants' as bringing 'chaos, immorality and disorder', and an image of the 9/11 attacks with the word 'Muslim' overlaid. Another post from March 2020 branded the Covid-19 pandemic 'fake', and another from December 2020 claimed 'Long Covid is not a thing'.

Countermill Wood's spokesman said: 'Many of these posts were not made by Sarah and do not accurately reflect her personal views. Her accounts were accessed and managed by several members of her campaign when she stood as a Brexit Party candidate and were later deleted.' Councillor Tanisha Bramwell of Kirklees Independents has made a formal complaint to Kirklees Council, describing the generalisations in the posts as racist.

How it is being reported

• Reform council leader breaks silence as historic posts unearthedThe leader of Kirklees Council has responded after historic “racist” tweets were posted from her former social media account.Yorkshire Post · 21 Oct, 14:14
• Kirklees Council Leader says 'many' old 'racist' posts weren't hers amid backlashReform council Leader Sarah Wood's spokesman said "many" of the posts were not made by herHuddersfield Examiner · 20 Oct, 21:34

In this story: Sarah Wood · Kirklees Council · Reform UK · Tanisha Bramwell · Kirklees Independents

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