Suspended Reform councillor intends to keep serving as an independent and hopes to 'move on' from Nazi scandal
“I have decided to carry on in my role”
A councillor who was suspended from his party only days after the local elections due to alleged Nazi sympathies has said he will continue serving his ward.
Nathaniel Menday has had a complicated time in office since he was elected as a councillor in Woodhouse on May 7.
By May 13, he was suspended from Reform UK pending an investigation, with a spokesperson saying that he had “brought the party into disrepute” when deleted social media posts praising dictators and describing people in the UK as being “fatter, uglier and poorly dressed” when compared to those in continental Europe were unearthed.
In his first public statement on May 19 he said he would not apologise for the posts and decided to take some time off to consider his future, which meant missing the council’s annual general meeting (AGM) on May 21 when the new council leader and Lord Mayor were appointed.
Now, he has made the decision to continue serving as an independent council and hopes to “move on” from the recent controversies.
“Moving on now (hopefully for good), I have decided to carry on in my role and if anything changes I will state that on here,” he wrote on Facebook on Monday (May 25).
“I am playing catch up and I apologise to my constituents, but I'll get there in time. When every other email is an interview request it doesn't incline you to open them, or to attend in-person events when you know you will feel the hard stare of countless people upon you.
“I am technically a politician now so maybe I need to toughen up, but I'm also a young lad and this has been pretty overwhelming. If however, as Labour called for, I resigned, you'd be in the same position just for longer.”
He accused the press of ignoring his “more level headed and serious tweets” and shared a screenshot of a deleted post in which he said he didn’t support the “total remigration” of foreign nationals.
“If I wouldn't support the removal of people from a country simply due to their background I think it's a bit of a stretch to say that I would sympathise with a regime that would murder millions for the same reason,” he added.
In previous statements, Coun Menday defended himself by saying that he likes to “make jokes about taboo topics” and that he does not agree with Nazi ideology.
In his latest post, he went on to write: “I have gotten to work now and I am hopeful that I can knuckle down and serve my ward and my city to the best of my abilities.
“I have been working on a couple of ideas that really excite me and which I will hopefully be able to publish ahead of the full council meeting on June 24.”
Fellow Woodhouse councillor Alison Norris has said that she worries Coun Menday doesn’t understand the impact his words have had.
“Residents have already been in touch to say that they’re concerned,” the Labour councillor told The Star.
“They can’t see how Nathaniel Menday is going to fairly represent them given the attitudes he publicly shared.
“From my point of view, I can’t see from anything he has said so far that he really understands the impact of what he said.
“He doesn’t show any real remorse for it.
“All the stuff about it being a joke, it really is our job to try and represent everyone fairly and I can’t see that he’s ready to take that job on from anything so far.”
The Star has approached Coun Menday for an interview.