Councillor Brendon O’Donnell should be expelled for racist Facebook post

There are calls for the leader of the Community Independents to expel his deputy after he shared a racist and inflammatory social media post targeting asylum seekers.

Councillor Brendon O’Donnell shared the post on Facebook promoting a far right group’s plan for a demonstration in Gloucester targeting asylum seekers.

The group is run by a well-known alleged conspiracy theorist, misogynist and anti-vaxxer, according to the anti-racist group Hope Not Hate.

This is not the first time Councillor O’Donnell, who represents Matson, Robinswood & White City on the city council, has used social media to share hateful and divisive rhetoric on his own account and also into local community group pages.

He has previously shared one disgusting post about an “asylum seeker” eating grass on the side of a road, also posted myths that “immigrants” get preferential treatment for housing over people with local connections, and shared a video calling for immigrants to be deported.

Gloucester Liberal Democrats are now demanding that Community Independent leader Alastair Chambers expel Councillor O’Donnell for these latest remarks.

“This is disgraceful behaviour from an elected councillor,” a Gloucester Liberal Democrat spokesman said. 

“Sharing inflammatory material that targets asylum seekers is unacceptable and has no place in Gloucester politics.

“Once might be an accident, twice suggests a mindset but carrying on like this is simply racist.

“If Councillor Chambers has any integrity, he will expel Councillor O’Donnell immediately. 

“Anything less is an endorsement of racism and division.

“Gloucester deserves leaders who bring people together, not councillors who fan the flames of hate.”

Councillor O’Donnell’s language is not only inaccurate but dangerous, fuelling hostility and mistrust in our communities.

Asylum seekers are not “illegal immigrants.” They are people fleeing war, persecution, and human rights abuses, with the legal right to seek asylum under the 1951 Refugee Convention. 

During the process, they are housed by the Home Office, they are not eligible for council housing and get just £49 per week to pay for food and all their expenses.

Migrants are often blamed for housing shortages, but the truth is they stand less of a chance of getting social housing than people born in the UK. 

New migrants arriving in the UK are not eligible for social housing except in very limited circumstances.

The housing crisis is due to a lack of new homes being built, not due to rising migration.