Shard End faces by-election after councillor quits over racist remarks

Voters in Shard End will go back to the polls after the councillor they elected in May resigned over racist remarks recorded by ITV News.

Alan Feeney won the seat for Reform comfortably in May, with more than 1,200 votes. Just over five months later he has stood down from Birmingham City Council and from Solihull Council, where he was also a councillor.

What he said

An ITV News investigation recorded Mr Feeney describing an area as "infested" with Asian families and calling them "absolute parasites". He was also recorded saying that no more than 1% of the UK's population should be non-white.

He left Reform earlier in the week, before the remarks were made public, and announced his resignation from both councils on Friday.

"There is no excuse for my comments," he wrote. "With responsibility comes accountability, and it is for that reason that I have resigned every post I hold on both Solihull Borough Council and Birmingham City Council."

He offered "sincere and unreserved apologies", saying: "My remarks were wrong, offensive and completely unacceptable. They do not reflect the standards that the public rightly expects from an elected representative, and I take full responsibility for what I said."

He said the comments did not reflect his true beliefs, that he had supported the communities named many times over the years, and that he would undertake "intensive personal analysis" to understand how such views "could have taken root".

Reform's response

Mr Feeney defected from the Conservatives to Reform last year. A Reform spokesperson told the BBC: "Where members, activists and councillors have clearly behaved inappropriately, investigations have commenced." The party said its vetting had improved but that some people who did not share its values would occasionally get through.

The ITV investigation filmed several Reform councillors and candidates around the country, and the party has suspended others since it was broadcast.

What happens next

A councillor's resignation creates a casual vacancy. Once the council is formally notified, a by-election must be held, and in practice that usually happens within a few weeks once candidates have been nominated. Birmingham Live has asked the council when the Shard End poll will take place.

Shard End, in the east of the city, was one of the seats Reform won in May, when the party became one of the main opposition groups on a council now run by a minority coalition of Liberal Democrats, Greens and independents. With no party holding a majority, every seat matters on the council floor.

A separate by-election will follow in Solihull, where Mr Feeney's seat is also now vacant. Anyone wanting to vote in the Shard End by-election must be on the electoral register, and can check or register online at gov.uk.