Councillor faces calls to resign after Holocaust remarks at Portsmouth meeting
He said a Czech refugee whose family died at Auschwitz wouldn’t have been “allowed to come here” under Reform’s policy
A senior Portsmouth councillor has been called on to resign after raising the horrors of the holocaust in a speech about Reform UK’s anti-asylum policy.
During a full Portsmouth City Council meeting, members debated and rejected a motion put forward by Reform UK which sought to affirm a stance that the city is unsuitable for small boat arrivals.
Speaking in opposition to the motion, Cllr Gerald Vernon-Jackson, a former council leader and Lord Mayor, criticised Reform’s policy of barring people arriving by small boat from claiming asylum.
He recalled a story from his family, namely his grandfather, who helped bring a young refugee called “George” from Czechoslovakia to the UK in 1938.
Cllr Vernon-Jackson said: “He fought in the Czech air force beside the RAF and at the end of the Second World War he went home. When he went home all of his family had been gassed at Auschwitz.
“Under the proposals we’re being asked to support from Reform he wouldn’t have been allowed to come here. That is what people here are saying, we shouldn’t have brought George here, he should have been gassed at Auschwitz.”
In response, Cllr George Madgwick described the comparison as “inflammatory” and “disgusting”.
Cllr Vernon-Jackson said he was happy to introduce Cllr Madgwick to his “namesake and let him tell you his story of how his family were murdered.”
Explaining his position in an email to Cllr Madgwick after the meeting, Cllr Vernon-Jackson said: “We all know that no one can claim asylum in the UK outside of the country so people are forced into coming here to do so and pushed into the arms of people smugglers.
“What I said was that your policy of not allowing people to do that would have meant that this guy, who fought with the RAF in the Battle of Britain, would not have been able to claim asylum here and would have been killed along with the rest of his family.”
In response, Cllr Madgwick said: “Gerald is now back peddling after making one of the most serious inflammatory allegations against people I’ve ever heard from any elected politician in this country.
“Gerald is the master of spin but he can’t spin his way out of this one. Gerald should resign with immediate effect.”