A COMPLAINT about the deputy mayor of Basingstoke accusing her of racism has been dismissed because it happened in her “private life”.

As previously reported, Cllr Onnalee Cubitt received a formal complaint after she referred to Covid-19 as the “Chinese virus” and liked a Tweet posted by US president Donald Trump in which he referred to the virus as “a very bad ‘gift’ from China”.

Cllr Cubitt previously defended her comments to the Gazette saying: “We called the Spanish flu Spanish.”

The World Health Organisation has advised against using terms that link the virus to China to avoid stigmatisation.

Now, Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council’s head of law and governance Fiona Thomsen, who is also the monitoring officer, has confirmed the complaint has been dismissed. 

She said: “Our councillor complaints process is guided by the council’s Arrangements for Considering Complaints against Councillors which can be found on the council’s website.

“The complaint has been dismissed at the first stage of the complaints process as the conduct complained about happened in Councillor Cubitt’s private life, not when she was acting as councillor.

“Case law has established that for complaints about social media posts the councillor has to be acting in their capacity as a councillor and the post must be about the council’s functions or business.

“Although the Twitter account used mentions Cllr Cubitt being a councillor it is a personal account and the posts were in the nature of a political comment on a national issue. Councillors enjoy the right of freedom of expression and the law gives a high level of protection to expressions of political views by councillors.”