🚨 Astonishingly, the heads of the Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service’s (GMFRS) ‘race and faith’ network have sent an email to firefighters, targeting staff members standing as candidates for Reform UK.
The email stated these individuals were "spoken to" and that management is seeking "legal guidance" to protect their "inclusive culture."
Sending an anti-Reform UK political broadcast on public systems during a regulated election period is a shocking breach of electoral neutrality and is unlawful.
Firefighters have every legal right to stand for election.
Hounding staff for lawful political views is unacceptable and is proof of the exact perception that anyone questioning an aggressive DEI agenda will be chased out of their job.
I have written to Chief Fire Officer Dave Russel demanding answers.
Petch and Ahmed - the network heads responsible - appear to have committed gross misconduct and should be dismissed.
GMFRS must apologize to Reform UK and the affected staff.
We have given GMFRS until Wednesday to answer 8 specific demands, including providing transcripts of what was said to our candidates and explaining why these network heads are permitted to weaponize IT systems.
I am also calling on HMICFRS (@HMICFRS) and the Electoral Commission (@ElectoralCommUK) to urgently investigate this unlawful breach.
Full letter below. 👇
Surely that’s illegal? And if the brigades have issued warnings should be held accountable as people’s political opinions should not be a consideration!
Senior figures at Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service, under the command of Andy Burnham, have cautioned firefighters who support Reform UK over their political views.
In a further chilling assault on free speech, staff have also effectively been urged in an email to report colleagues who support Reform.
Fire brigade bosses have also said they are seeking legal advice on what to do about firefighters who decide to stand as Reform UK candidates. This is despite the fact that, unlike police officers, there is no legal bar preventing firefighters from participating in national or local politics.
In their email, fire brigade bosses Mr Petch and Ms Ahmed said: ’We are aware that some staff members have chosen to represent Reform UK in their local areas. We know this may cause concern within our network and wider.
’The individuals involved have been spoken to, to make it clear that as members of GMFRS (Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service) our core values and professional behaviours must be displayed at all times.
’The service is currently seeking formal legal guidance… to ensure we are protected from all perspectives and that our inclusive culture remains safe.
‘Our priority is and always will be ensuring that every member of this network feels supported, respected and safe at work.’
They also confirmed that they would be consulting the Fire Brigades Union on the matter.
In his role as Mayor of Greater Manchester, @AndyBurnhamGM — who is also tipped by some to be a future Prime Minister if he wins the Makerfield by-election — is also Greater Manchester’s Fire Commissioner, responsible for overseeing the service.
General Secretary of the Free Speech Union, Lord Young of Acton, has now written to Mr Burnham to raise concerns about the chilling effect this has on free speech.
Lord Young said that the ‘clear implication’ of the email from the fire brigade bosses was that ‘representing Reform UK constitutes an inherent threat to the institution’s culture and values and is to be treated as morally suspect’. He also highlighted that no action appears to have been taken against firefighters who support other political parties.
The letter also states: ‘Staff are further invited to report colleagues who support any groups that go against the service’s values, which effectively amounts to an instruction to inform on colleagues for their political beliefs.
’The email will create a chilling effect on the free speech of GMFRS employees who support Reform.
’The practical effect is that a public fire and rescue service governed by you is treating the lawful political activity of your electoral opponents as a reputational risk to their employer.
‘Regardless of whether this reflects your instruction, it reflects your governance; and a public office-holder who permits his institution to demonise or chill the speech and political activity of those who support his principal electoral rival cannot claim to be discharging that office with the impartiality it demands.’
Read more below 👇
Patriots speak for those who can’t due to fear of persecution… the division that is seen in the USA is nothing compared to what’s coming here, and across Europe the right wing swing is getting bigger
🚨BREAKING: The United States government has sent official condolences to the family of Henry Nowak and the people of the United Kingdom
The US cares more than Keir Starmer.
Oh Claire. Come off it.
All of this DEI stuff grew under the Tory government.
As Home Secretary I was the first to challenge two tier policing. Where were you in that fight? Where was Kemi? Nowhere. Silent. Your mate Rishi sacked me for blowing the whistle on police failure.
And if you want to talk about tackling Islamophobia, I repeat, where were you and Kemi when I was trying to stop the Grooming Gangs in 2023? Kemi was instead criticising me in public - before she said I was having a nervous breakdown, of course. And Tory MPs accused me of Islamophobia. And what about how @LeeAndersonMP_ was disgracefully treated by the Tories?
The point is this: when you were in power and had the opportunity to stop some of these tragedies, you did nothing whatsoever. In fact, it was Tory MPs who made it worse.
Talk in opposition is easy. Action in government is hard. And the Tories utterly failed the British people.
It’s why I left and am so pleased to be in @reformparty_uk - the only party that speaks for the British people.
You know you live in the UK when Keir Starmer politicises Adolescence, a fictional series where the culprit is white. However, he doesn’t want to bring politics into Henry Nowak, where the victim is white.
Here’s what prominent Brits said as America’s cities burned.
Very fortunately, protesters mourning Nowak have not ignited infrastructure, murdered anyone, or otherwise cut an antisocial swathe of destruction through the UK. To the extent any of them care what America thinks, we urge them to remain peaceful—and we expect they will. Just like Henry Nowak and just like Americans, ordinary Brits have been slandered as racist. Thus violent. They’re not.
No, David Lammy.
I don’t care about the ethnicity of judges.
I want the law to be blind.
You’re the one obsessed by the ethnicity of judges.
Do you stand by your comments about Sir Martin Moore-Bick?
I’m getting sick and tired of Keir Starmer and other left-wing politicians cherry-picking one segment of the Nowak family’s statement about not wanting this to cause further division in an attempt to silence political opponents through guilt.
That isn’t all the Nowak family said.
They also said that Henry was treated differently by the police to Vickrum Digwa. They also said they wanted the Kirpan banned along with all other knives.
Starmer has respected neither of those wishes. He has denied that two-tier policing exists and refused to support banning the Kirpan.
So please don’t start lecturing other politicians about respecting the family’s wishes when you are not doing so yourself.
James O’Brien thinks people are outraged because the ethnic minority wasn’t targeted…
Of course he does, halfwit would be too generous. People are outraged because police ignored the fact he’d been stabbed, they handcuffed him whilst blood was spilling out of his mouth, and ultimately he died because they neglected to take him seriously.
But they happily took racism allegations seriously.
People are outraged at the clear bias in policing when it comes to who’s taken seriously.
When I was Home Secretary, the National Police Chiefs Council (NPCC) asked me to fund their ‘Race Action Plan’.
I refused their repeated requests, telling them that it was wrong and that they should instead focus on a ‘Knife Crime Action Plan,’ which I would support. They never did.
It is regrettable that this disastrous plan went ahead years later.
The NPCC - basically a council of the Woke Chiefs- is destroying policing.
The most dishonest woman in politics.
She said they would employ 6500 more teachers, there are 1900 fewer.
She is treating the public with total contempt.