![\"Cllr](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/0_Cllr-Fabian-Breckels.jpg\")
Cllr Fabian Breckels of St George Troopers Hill(Image: Bristol City Council)<\/p>\n\u201cIt is now totally clear what kind of party Labour are”Cllr Fabian Breckels of St George Troopers Hill(Image: Bristol City Council)<\/p>\n
A Bristol Labour councillor suspended from the party after he made a comment on Facebook<\/a> that sparked complaints of racism<\/a> has been restored to the party, prompting fury from opponents at City Hall. Bristol’s Labour<\/a> Group said a council investigation into the comment, from Cllr Fabian Breckels, deemed \u2018no further action\u2019 should be taken, and have restored the party whip to the veteran councillor.<\/p>\n Cllr Breckels (Lab, St George Troopers Hill) will be a Labour councillor again after a month spent as an independent, but won\u2019t return to his position as chair of the licensing committee at City Hall, or as the Labour nomination to the Board of Trustees of We The Curious. The Labour group at City Hall said Cllr Breckels had also agreed to undertake some equalities training.<\/p>\n Green Party opponents, who first called out the comment a month ago and demanded Cllr Breckels resignation<\/a>, said the decision to reinstate Cllr Breckels meant it was \u2018now totally clear what kind of a party Labour are\u2019, and again called on him to resign.<\/p>\n The row began in early November when a member of the public posted images of a person suspected of removing gas pipes from homes and buildings in the Fishponds and Eastville area of Bristol in a community group on Facebook.<\/p>\n Cllr Breckels commented underneath: \u201cThis idiot needs locking up, and if he’s not British he needs deporting afterwards\u201d, prompting responses from other members of the group calling the comment ‘racist’ and suggesting that if the person photographed was white, the councillor would unlikely have made the same remark.<\/p>\n Cllr Breckels later deleted his comment, and apologised as the backlash grew and neighbouring Green Party councillors complained <\/a>and reported him to City Hall chiefs. A formal council investigation into the complaints began, and the Labour group at City Hall withdrew the whip from him while that investigation was underway.<\/p>\n A spokesperson for Bristol Labour said that the council\u2019s investigation \u2018determined no further action was to be taken\u2019. \u201cFollowing the conclusion of an investigation by Bristol City Council<\/a> and the national Labour Party<\/a>, the Bristol Labour Group has collectively agreed to reinstate the whip to Councillor Breckels,\u201d a spokesperson said.<\/p>\n \u201cHowever, he has been removed from his position as Chair of the Licensing Committee and as Labour’s nomination to the Board of Trustees of We the Curious.<\/p>\n READ MORE: Bristol Labour councillor suspended after ‘racist’ Facebook comment<\/a>READ MORE: Leading councillor suspended as chair of mosque as Charity Commission investigates Hamas video<\/a><\/p>\n “Councillor Breckels promptly deleted the comment and unreservedly apologised for any hurt his actions may have caused. As a condition for his readmittance to the Bristol Labour Group, he has agreed to undertake equalities training,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n The restoration of Cllr Breckels as a Labour councillor sparked fury from neighbouring Cllr Lorraine Francis (Green, Eastville), who again called for his resignation.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is now totally clear what kind of party Labour are,\u201d she said. \u201cA party that is parroting the vile, racist rhetoric of Reform while abandoning the progressive and inclusive values their party was based on.<\/p>\n “I am calling for a fair and transparent migrant policy from this Labour Government and expect every councillor in Bristol to do the same.<\/p>\n \u201cResidents should expect better from their representatives. As Labour refuse to offer any sanctions, I am calling for Cllr Breckels to hear his residents’ shock and disgust and resign immediately,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cIt is now totally clear what kind of party Labour are”Cllr Fabian Breckels of St George Troopers Hill(Image:…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":565187,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8818],"tags":[381,3893,748,12894,393,600,12716,4884,14144,528,285,10298,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-565186","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bristol","8":"tag-bristol","9":"tag-bristol-city-council","10":"tag-britain","11":"tag-eastville","12":"tag-england","13":"tag-facebook","14":"tag-fishponds","15":"tag-great-britain","16":"tag-green-party","17":"tag-labour-party","18":"tag-politics","19":"tag-st-george","20":"tag-uk","21":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115535335739109148","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/565186","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=565186"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/565186\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/565187"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=565186"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=565186"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=565186"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/0_nurses-broke-a-933506.jpg\")
Cllr Lorraine Francis<\/p>\n