Councillor filmed making racist comments

An ITV investigation revealed secretly recorded footage of Alan Feeney, a Reform councillor for Solihull and Birmingham, making racist comments about Asian homeowners during a local election campaign.

What Feeney said in the footage

Feeney called Asian homeowners parasites and stated that no more than one percent of the British population can be non-white during the secretly recorded conversations.

“no more than 1% of [the] British population can be non-white”

Feeney resigns all his posts

In a Facebook post on Friday, Feeney wrote that there is no excuse for his comments and resigned every post he held on both Solihull borough council and Birmingham city council.

“There is no excuse for my comments.”

Two other candidates also resign

Secretly filmed footage showed Feeney making racist remarks alongside two other Reform candidates, Jamie Campbell and Chris Whelan, who went on to become councillors. Both have also resigned after the investigation.

Byelections to be held

Feeney announced that byelections will be held on a timescale laid out by the councils in due course, and expressed hope that the councils and communities they serve can heal and move on.