A Conservative council candidate in Bolton has been kicked out of the party for a second time over claims he posted a racist comment on Facebook. Derek Bullock was re-selected to stand for a seat for the Hulton ward on Bolton Council at local elections next month despite previously being thrown out of the party for alleged anti-Islamic statements on social media.
However, a screenshot has recently emerged which shows a post following the Manchester Arena bombing in 2017, under the post an account which appears to show Mr Bullock’s name and profile picture commented: “Shoot the P***s on the spot.” Mr Bullock was chosen by the party to stand again in the Hulton ward, where he has been a councillor since 2019.
Nomination papers for the election naming Mr Bullock as a Conservative candidate were published today, the same day that party chiefs terminated his membership. The current position is that Mr Bullock will appear on ballot papers for the Hulton ward on May 4 as a Conservative candidate but will not be a member of the party or have the party whip if he is elected.
Bolton Conservative leader Martyn Cox said that after originally being expelled from the party in 2020 for other inappropriate social media posts there had been an ‘administration error’ to let him rejoin.
He said Mr Bullock had applied to rejoin the party around 18 months ago and was accepted.
He said: “He was expelled from the party, he re-applied to join and was accepted but they are now saying when he applied to re-join he should have been rejected.
“He came to me and said he was a member of the Conservative Party which means I had to accept he was a Conservative councillor.” It is understood Coun Bullock has sat with the controlling Conservative group on Bolton Council after his time as an independent since September 2022.
In March 2020, Coun Bullock faced disciplinary action after it was alleged an article from an anti-Muslim activist’s “JihadWatch” had been posted on his Facebook. In response to an article about former party chair Baroness Sayeeda Warsi, he reportedly added: “She’s been a cuckoo in the nest!” And in another post, from February 2015, he was alleged to have shared a news article with the headline 'Number of Muslim children in England and Wales doubles in a decade', adding the comment “the clock is ticking”.
A Conservative party spokesman said: “Councillor Bullock has been expelled from the Conservative Party.” Mr Bullock did not respond to a request for comment.
Yasmin Qureshi, Labour MP for Bolton South East, said she was ‘absolutely disgusted by the deeply offensive’ Facebook post. “The decision of the Bolton Conservative Party to reselect Bullock is just another example of the disdain the party has for the Muslim community and the deeply rotten culture of Islamophobia which has been found to exist throughout the party,” she said.
Ms Qureshi called on local Tories to ‘apologise for even contemplating his return to our town hall’. Bolton Labour leader Nick Peel said he was ‘sickened’ by the alleged racist comment.
He, said: “I am calling for Bolton Conservative leader, Coun Martyn Cox to publicly disown himself from him, to express regret that he has been endorsed as a Conservative candidate and for Coun Cox to ask the voters in the Hulton ward not to cast their vote for Derek Bullock. “I am also asking for the other Conservative candidates in Hulton to advise voters not to vote for Mr Bullock and to pulp any printed materials that they are featured in with Mr Bullock.”
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