Cllr Ian Ward, the Chairman of the Isle of Wight Conservative Association, has been heavily criticised on social media after he Retweeted Tommy Robinson, the notorious ex-leader of the English Defence League (EDL).
People have been asking Cllr Ward, who is one of only two candidates standing for re-election in the Sandown South ward, why he appears to be supporting Tommy Robinson, given Robinson’s well-known views. He hasn’t publicly responded.
Ward: “I never heard of Tommy Robinson”
OnTheWight contacted Cllr Ward yesterday morning asking him, “Can you explain why you retweeted a Tweet by the ex-leader of the EDL, a known racist organisation?”
Cllr Ward replied claiming that he’d never had heard of Tommy Robinson:
“I never heard of Tommy Robinson. I noticed the post because it seemed to reflect the poor record of the Labour Party on immigration. I’m the last person to be racist.”
Despite warning, Ward retweet remains
Despite it being over 24 hours since OnTheWight made Cllr Ward aware of Tommy Robinson’s connection to a racist organisation, at the time of publishing this article, Cllr Ward’s name remains connected with the Tweet, as he hasn’t reversed his retweet.
Ward: Quiz says I’m more right wing than Trump
On 8th March, Ian Ward publicly posted on his Facebook page,
“I’ve just done a short on-line quiz about my attitude to various subjects. The results show that I am more right wing and authoritarian than Donald Trump. I suspected that he is really a left wing liberal!!”
