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| Cllr Marcus Johnstone |
A hard left Labour councillor has apologised for a Facebook post in which he appeared to call for armed resistance to the Tory government. Cllr Marcus Johnstone made the comments in the aftermath of the general election result, but they only came to light recently after a Tory councillor made a formal complaint to Burnley Borough Council's monitoring officer.
According to the Lancashire Telegraph, the now deleted post read: "Comrades! They’ve won. And now we resist. We must fight them to the last bullet. And when that’s gone we must throw rocks at the Bastard Tories. And when there’s no rocks left, we go in and fight them hand to hand. Resist Resist".
Earlier this week Cllr Johnstone was found to have breached Burnley Council's code of conduct and had brought both himself and the council into disrepute. However, Johnstone's apology was deemed enough to close the matter. His statement read: "It was never my intention to use my Facebook comment to incite violence or hatred against any of my political colleagues and I apologise unreservedly to anyone who may have been alarmed, offended or concerned by my actions. This has been a salient lesson in how not to use social media and I look forward to putting this incident behind me". Ironically, Johnstone is vice chair of the council's Scrutiny Committee.
His apology was also accepted by Cllr Cosima Towneley, the Tory who had made the complaint.
The language used by Johnstone is typical language for the hard left. It harks back to the infamous 'Arm John McDonnell' t-shirts and the election speech of Corbyn loyalist Lloyd Russell-Moyle. The MP for Brighton Kemptown was incensed by the 2019 election result and ranted in a bizarre speech that Labour would fight the Tories 'in the workplaces and in the streets'. Click below for a recap...
