A Stockport councillor has been thrown out of the Conservative Party after sharing ‘discriminatory’ tweets claiming mosques were hiding ‘secret arsenals’ and describing UK immigration rates as ‘cultural suicide’. Councillor Alanna Vine has been permanently expelled by the party following an investigation into her posts on social media. She had been suspended since July, after complaints arose about her online behaviour.
The Bramhall North councillor declined to comment when contacted by the Local Democracy Reporting Service when the outcome of the probe was officially confirmed. However, the Conservative Party has issued a brief statement following the decision.
A party spokesperson said: “Alana Vine has been expelled from the party over social media posts which were deemed discriminatory towards those of the Islamic faith. Posting such content is in conflict with the values of the Conservative Party and will not be tolerated.”
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Coun Vine’s expulsion leaves the Conservative group on Stockport council permanently reduced to just four members. However, deputy group leader Coun Oliver Johnstone said it was the right course of action for the party to take.
“Stockport Conservative Group and The Conservative Party as a whole takes allegations of this nature extremely seriously,” he said. “Following an investigation, Coun Vine was found to have endorsed and promoted views which were wholly unacceptable and incompatible with her membership of the Conservative and Unionist Party.
“It is therefore right and proper that Coun Vine has been permanently expelled from the party and the Stockport Conservative group.”
Coun Vine, an ardent Brexiteer and supporter of Boris Johnson, was responsible for sharing a string of contentious tweets via her still-active Twitter account. Although later ‘undone’, these included one which read ‘ ‘how many mosques have secret arsenals? Just waiting for when our troops are elsewhere in the world’.
The original post, by Richard Smith - @RasSmudge - was in response to a tweet whose author claimed to have been ‘laughed at’ for suggesting the UK was facing an 'invasion' of boats. She also retweeted user ‘Nigelisback’ - @AlexAnd09667880 - who said the area of Manchester where he was born was ‘now like being in Somalia’.
The tweet added: “Hundreds of Somalian ‘asylum seekers’ were placed there many years ago. There are 1000’s and 1000’s of them. Seeing is believing, they live no differently than they did in Somalia." He went on to suggest the UK ‘is finished’, deploying a Union Flag emoji to represent the country.
Coun Vine shared a now deleted post from the ‘National Housing Party U.K’ - @NHPUKOfficial - calling on right wing commentator Calvin Robinson to ‘step up to the plate and be the first one on @GBNews to say we must stop accepting refugees’. It continued: “You will have an army behind you. What is happening is a disaster and is not orderly or Christian.”
And she retweeted a post by @JackBarbour_ that said population growth and rates of migration between 2011 and 2021 were ‘cultural suicide’. In his Twitter bio, @JackBarbour_ says that he is 'allergic to lefties and Islam'.
Coun Vine has represented Bramhall North since 2011, having previously been the Northern Regional Director of WWF (World Wide Fund for Nature) where she worked for more than 10 years. After leaving WWF, she trained and became a Magistrate on the Inner Manchester Bench for several years, sitting on both the adult and junior benches.
Coun Vine also sits on the Campaign Task Force for climate change in Stockport and is a member of the Conservative Animal Welfare Foundation. Stockport council said in July it was awaiting the outcome of the Conservatives’ investigation, before considering how to proceed ‘in light of the Code of Conduct which applies to all councillors and which is contained in the council’s constitution.’
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