COVENTRY MESSAGE BOARD

Police were called to a heated exchange between a Coventry City Councillor and a shopkeeper.



Raj Kuru called police after alleging that Coun Jaswant Singh Birdi had refused to leave his Quick Shop store, on Harnall Lane East, following an argument about litter.

Mr Kuru said: “There’s rubbish outside and he started to make a big scene and refused to leave the premises, I had to call the police.”

He added: “I thought he was out of his mind. He was complaining about the rubbish outside, but there’s no proof it has come from our bins.”

Conservative Coun Birdi is the councillor for the Bablake ward, but Mr Kuru’s shop sits in the Labour stronghold of St Michael’s.

But Coun Birdi said he was within his rights to tackle issues regarding a shop outside of his constituency.

He said: “I have friends everywhere, that’s not relevant.

“The bins there are all full of litter and stuff was falling away. It’s been going on for very many months. He got heated and called the police.

“I think the issue is resolved, I have reported the issue to officers.”

Asked if he had refused to leave the shop, he said: “That was not the case, there was no issue on that one.

“I waited because he had called the police, I had done nothing wrong. Why would I run away?”

A West Midlands Police spokesman confirmed they had been called to the shop at 10.46am on Monday to reports of “a person refusing to leave the shop”. Police attended but no arrests were made and no further action will take place.

Coventry Tory councillor was racially abusive to shopkeeper, investigation finds


Raj Kuru, owner of Quick Shop on Harnall Lane East and Stockton Road, Coventry

A Conservative councillor was racially abusive to a shopkeeper and threatened to close his business down, an investigation into his conduct has found.

Coventry City Council appointed a solicitor to investigate the behaviour of Coun Jaswant Singh Birdi after a Telegraph report in January which revealed police had been called to the Quick Shop store, in Harnall Lane East, Hillfields, following a heated exchange between the councillor and shop owner Raj Kuru.

Coun Birdi, who is the shadow cabinet member for equalities, rejects the findings which came after Mr Kuru complained about the conduct of the councillor for Bablake. He alleged the councillor had broken the council’s code of conduct by raising concerns about litter outside the shop in a ward which he did not represent and directing trading standards to investigate the business.

Mr Kuru’s complaint also indicated Coun Birdi had become angry and aggressive, made racist remarks and had not made clear he was a councillor.

Jeremy Thomas, a solicitor and Head of Law and Governance at Oxford City Council, was appointed to carry out an investigation into the complaint.

He found that: “Coun Birdi was racially abusive to the complainant and this amounted to a breach of the code in failing to treat people with respect”.

He added that “Coun Birdi did make an inappropriate threat to close the complainant’s shop down but his subsequent actions in asking trading standards to check the premises were not inappropriate.

“In making the threat, Coun Birdi failed to treat the complainant with respect and this amounted to a breach of the code.”

The findings, published on the council’s website, also concluded that Coun Birdi was entitled to raise concerns about the amount of litter in an area that was not in his own ward.

Coun Birdi rejects the findings of Mr Thomas and has demanded that Coventry council’s ethics committee publicly meet to discuss the findings next week.

Possible official sanctions against Coun Birdi range from taking no action to recommending that the leader of the council seeks to remove the councillor from any senior roles and that he be sent for training.

Tory councillor who "racially abused shopkeeper" should quit equalities post says deputy leader


Jaswant Singh Birdi during the Election count and announcements at the Ricoh Arena in Coventry

A tory councillor embroiled in a race row should quit his position as shadow cabinet member for equality, according to his opposite number.

Coun Abdul Khan, deputy council leader and cabinet member for equalities, has called on Coun Jaswant Birdi to step down from his position after an independent investigator found he was racially abusive to a Sri Lankan shopkeeper when he threatened to close his shop down.

Coun Birdi rejects the findings and has asked for his case to be heard in public by the council’s ethics committee on Monday.

But Coun Khan says he believes Coun Birdi, who represents Bablake, should not be allowed to continue in his role and that the Conservatives should consider removing him from the party.

Coun Khan said: “A credible independent person has found in the balance of probability that Coun Birdi was racist.

“What Coun Birdi has done is potentially worse than Coun Williams because it was actually directed at somebody.

“The ethics committee will decide on sanctions, but I think he should step down from his role as the shadow cabinet member for equalities.

“According to an independent person he’s acted against the principles of that post and he shouldn’t remain in that post.

“In my view it is a very serious matter.”

Asked if he thought Coun Birdi should resign from the council entirely, he said: “We thought Glenn Williams should, but he didn’t.

“He should be removed from the group. What was in the report is incredible.

“He used discriminatory language against a person. To call somebody a name based on their ethnic background, and ridicule the guy, that’s discrimination.”

But Conservative leader John Blundell said his party would stand by Coun Birdi and that they would wait to see what evidence emerged in the ethics committee hearing.

He said: “It all seems to be based on opinion. Assumptions have been made over a sequence of events.

“There’s evidence that Jaswant is keen to be included that wasn’t included at the time. I think that’s why Jaswant has asked for the ethics committee to consider it.”

He added: “We’re standing by Jaswant. We’ll have to wait and see what happens at the ethics committee. We’ll look at the results of that and make comments depending on the outcome of that.

“Jaswant feels he’s been hard done by. The report is not favourable to Jaswant but we know he feels strongly that certain elements have not been given sufficient weight.”

Asked how he felt about a second of his party’s councillors being embroiled in a racism row, he said: “Glenn Williams confirmed all the comments, so I don’t equate the two.”

Coun Birdi declined to comment in the wake of the findings of the report, but when asked about the racism allegations at the time of the shop bust up in January, he said: “I have no comment to make on that, that’s his version.

“I have not made any racial comments. There’s no story there.”

Meeting to discuss "racially abusive" Tory councillor's behaviour unexpectedly postponed

A public meeting to discuss the findings of a report into the “racially abusive” behaviour of a Tory councillor has been postponed.

Coventry City Council ’s ethics committee was due to meet today after Coun Jaswant Singh Birdi rejected the report’s findings asked for them to be reviewed in public.

Today council officials were forced to cancel the meeting due to unforeseen circumstances. The reason for the postponement and the new date will be announced in due course.

Hearing into councillor's "racially abusive" behaviour postponed after investigator dies

An ethics hearing into the conduct of a Tory councillor labelled “racially abusive” in an independent report was postponed at short notice after the investigator died.

Jeremy Thomas, Oxford City Council’s top lawyer, had been commissioned by Coventry City Council to investigate the behaviour of Bablake Coun Jaswant Birdi after investigating a dispute with a shopkeeper in Harnall Lane East, Hillfields.

Mr Thomas has published a report detailing his findings and due to give evidence about the incident and his investigation during a council ethics committee scheduled for Monday.

But the 47-year-old died on Sunday after taking part in a 50-mile charity bicycle ride. He was taken ill during the event and passed away later in hospital.

A new date for the ethics committee hearing will be set in due course.

Tory councillor awaits fate after racially abusing Sri Lankan shopowner

A councillor is waiting to learn his fate after a council ethics committee found that he made ‘racially abusive’ comments towards a Sri Lankan shopkeeper.

Cllr Jaswant Singh Birdi will next week find out whether his position as shadow member for policing and equalities is safe after an independent investigation found he breached the council’s Code of Conduct.

He has now been censured, but one of recommendations handed out by the committee, which is neither a formal inquest or court, was that Tory councillor Birdi no longer sits in the shadow cabinet.

The Conservative group leader, Cllr John Blundell, told the Telegraph after the hearing that the group would review Cllr Birdi’s role in the coming weeks.

This is the second blow for the local Conservative group after former Tory councillor Glenn Williams was formally censured last year for xenophobic comments made during a private Whatsapp conversation.

Conservative Party bosses suspend racially abusive councillor over head of local leader

A Coventry councillor has been suspended from the Conservative Party after being found to have made racially abusive comments.

Senior Tory bosses have gone over the head of the local Conservative leadership to suspend Cllr Jaswant Birdi from the party.

Council bosses do not have the power to force Cllr Birdi to resign, but the Ethics Committee did recommend that he be removed from his position as shadow member for policing and equalities.

Cllr Birdi resigned from that position last week and was removed from the position of honorary president of the local Conservative Association.

It seemed that he would escape any further punishment with the Conservative leader on Coventry City Council, Cllr John Blundell, telling the Telegraph last week he considered the issue “a local matter”.

But a statement from regional party bosses issued to the Telegraph this week undermined that claim.

A Conservative spokesman said: “He (Cllr Birdi) has been suspended from the party, pending an investigation.”

It is not clear who is leading the investigation or how long it will take.

Speaking to the Telegraph today, Cllr Blundell said he was unaware of the decision to suspend Cllr Birdi until the Telegraph flagged up the latest party statement.

Other Tory councillors have also indicated they were not aware of the suspension.

Cllr Blundell said: “My understanding was that this was a local matter. This obviously seems to contradict that. I will be investigating.”