A COMPLAINT made about the deputy mayor of Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council, accusing her of posting offensive Tweets, is now being dealt with formally.

As previously reported, Cllr Onnalee Cubitt came under fire when she said it was “fair” to refer to Covid-19 as the “Chinese virus”, after liking a Tweet by US president Donald Trump refering to the virus as a "a very bad gift from China".

The deputy mayor was defending accusations made about her in the complaint, and told the Gazette: “We called the Spanish flu Spanish. I think it’s fair to call it the Chinese virus. If you want to call someone racist for calling a virus Chinese…”

Her comments caused outrage among some members of the public and fellow councillors, including leader of the Basingstoke Labour party, Cllr Andrew McCormick, who described her views as “outrageous”.

Now, Alex Lee, who made the original complaint to the borough council, has been told the legal services manager is “consulting with the Independent Standards Assessor” regarding his allegations.

The council is required to have in place arrangements for dealing with allegations that councillors have failed to comply with a Code of Conduct, and also to investigate and determine these allegations.

The Code details how councillors are expected to behave, and includes: “You must not conduct yourself in a manner which could reasonably be regarded as bringing your office or authority into disrepute”.

Mr Lee’s complaint is now at ‘stage one’ of the formal process, when the deputy monitoring officer consults with an Independent Standards Assessor.

In straightforward circumstances, complaints can be dismissed, for example, if the conduct complained about happened in the councillor’s private life.

However, if a complaint proceeds to ‘stage two’, a decision will be made as to whether there is a breach of the Code and what sanction (if any) should be given.

A formal investigation could then be conducted.

No sanctions imposed can prevent a councillor functioning as a councillor.

However, if a councillor has been found to be in breach of the Code, sanctions could include them being given training or be excluded from council premises.

The leader of their political group could be asked to remove them from committees.

When the Gazette spoke to council leader, Cllr Ken Rhatigan about the complaint, he said there was a "process" that would be followed.