A councillor says he was accused of “inciting hatred” for questioning how asylum hotel use would impact residents on his local housing waiting list. John Edwards was reported to the police and put under investigation by a monitoring officer at Bracknell Forest Council in Berkshire for sharing photos of the interior of a migrant hotel while questioning the consequences of new arrivals on the area’s housing stock. The Independent member of Sandhurst Town Council said he wanted to raise awareness of the impending arrival of 300 Afghan asylum seekers to Bracknell in April – and was targeted for spreading “misinformation” shortly afterwards.
It followed the revelation that thousands of Afghans were relocated to the UK as part of a secret £850 million scheme set up by the previous Government after a major data leak in 2022. In a post shared on Facebook in April, Mr Edwards questioned the fairness of housing hundreds of Afghan asylum seekers while “many of our own veterans remain homeless”.
“I want to make clear that everyone arriving on this scheme must be treated with dignity and respect. This is in no way blaming them, and they should be made to feel welcome,” he added.
“But I also believe it’s completely reasonable to ask what impact this scheme will have on our area – and whether there is a disparity between the support being offered to those arriving under the scheme, and what Bracknell residents currently receive.”
However, a councillor on the nearby Labour-controlled Bracknell Forest Council also took to Facebook to accuse Mr Edwards of “far-right propaganda” for his post.
Labour official Cherise Welch said Mr Edwards’ inclusion of “photos of a hotel he is suggesting will be used for Afghanistan families” amounted to “deliberately stirring up hate”.
“It’s not difficult to understand [that] the location should not be revealed due to safety concerns,” she added. “This has all been reported to the Ministry of Defence, council and local police.”
In his post, Mr Edwards said he would not name the hotel expected to house the 300 migrants or reveal its location, but included blurred images of its interior because he thought it was “in the public interest and a key part of the conversation”.
“The council has fuelled a narrative that I’m spreading hate and misinformation – despite my claims being true,” the Independent councillor, who said he never heard from police after the alleged report, told MailOnline.
“Another councillor has said publicly [that] they … reported me to the police for ‘stirring racial hatred’,” he added. “This would be a serious criminal offence. It’s stressful, it’s potentially very harmful to my reputation.”
Samuel Armstrong, of the Free Speech Union, said: “Far from inciting racial hatred, his Facebook posts are some of the most anodyne messages I have ever seen. We now know there was an official cover-up over the [Aghan data leak] scheme, yet when this elected councillor did his job and asked some basic questions about whether local people were going to be pushed down the housing list, he was placed under formal investigation.”
A spokesperson for Bracknell Forest Council said the matter was under investigation and “it would not be appropriate to comment further at this time”.