Thread by @stuartmillar159

Exclusive: Tory Vice-Chair Ben Bradley Defended A Conservative Councillor Who Shared Anti-Muslim Memes On Facebook buzzfeed.com/alexspence/tor…

Tory chairman @BrandonLewis said on Friday the party had zero tolerance of abuse.

But emails seen by @BuzzFeedNews shows that in Nov 2016 Bradley defended a Tory councillor posting offensive memes as “fantastic”, “honest” and “says what he thinks”

buzzfeed.com/alexspence/tor…

Bradley also berated a local news reporter and threatened repercussions against his paper for asking questions about the posts mocking Muslims and disabled people by Tory councillor Mick Murphy. In the end the paper didn’t run the story

Here are some of Bradley’s emails

When @BuzzFeedNews asked Bradley for comment, he initially released a statement through Tory HQ claiming that he had raised the posts with Murphy who removed them and apologised.

Then we pointed out that the posts were very much still live and so Bradley’s statement changed.

You may remember Ben Bradley from his previous hits
* suggesting that unemployed people should have vasectomies to stop them having children
buzzfeed.com/alexspence/thi…

* Being forced to apologise to Corbyn after falsely accusing him of selling secrets to communist spies

The Tory party says it has launched an investigation into Mick Murphy’s posts but did not respond when @BuzzFeedNews asked whether it would also look at Bradley’s defence of him and his failure to take action.

This is a serious test of Brandon Lewis’ zero tolerance policy.

Tory investigation must also look at why the first statement it released in Bradley’s name claimed that the offensive posts had been removed at the time and the councillor had apologised.

UPDATE: Tory official now telling @BuzzFeedNews councillor Mick Murphy was suspended and investigation launched last week. Still refusing to say whether investigation also looking at Ben Bradley buzzfeed.com/alexspence/tor…