Anger as Labour councillor throws a ‘Nazi salute’ before screaming that he is a ‘fascist’ during bizarre outburst_Nhy
A Labour councillor has caused outrage after he was seemingly filmed doing a Nazi salute before screaming that he is a ‘fascist’ during a council meeting.
The bizarre moment happened as Cllr Alan Gardiner spoke at a meeting and told a Liberal Democrat member to ‘shut up’.
As clapping and laughter were heard in the background, the Labour politician then seemingly does the Nazi Sieg Heil salute.
To make matters even worse Mr Gardiner then repeated ‘I’m a fascist’ a number of times.
He has since apologised saying he was being ironic.
However, the move was described as ‘deeply disturbing’ by councillor Sarita Robinson who spoke to the Express.
She said the Labour Party need to act ‘clearly and swiftly’ about this after saying they would get ‘serious about tackling antisemitism at every level’.
She added: ‘Hull is a proud and welcoming city and this action does not speak for us.
‘As a Jewish person and minority in the city it was horrific to see this display of ambient antisemitism.’
As clapping and laughter were heard in the background, the Labour politician then seemingly does the Nazi Sieg Heil salute
The bizarre moment as Cllr Alan Gardiner spoke at a meeting and told a Liberal Democrat candidate to ‘shut up’
Since this, the councillor has now apologised for his comments, saying in a statement: ‘I wholeheartedly apologise for my comments made in the chamber earlier today’.
‘After a heated debate I made comments in irony which upon reflection I know are highly inappropriate.’
MailOnline approached Mr Gardiner for comment.
This comes after tech billionaire Elon Musk was embroiled in a scandal after after claims he seemingly did the same salute at Trump’s Inauguration
After this, he rattled off a series of off-colour puns in a post to his X account in response to this.
His post made light of the names of Adolf Hitler’s Deputy Fuhrer Rudolf Hess; Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels; Reichstag President Hermann Göring; and Schutzstaffel (SS) Commander Heinrich Himmler.
Conservatives rushed to Musk’s defence after a liberal meltdown over the gesture where he put his hand over his heart, then shot his hand out to wave to the crowd in Capital One Arena.
Even Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu weighed in, writing in an X post on Thursday that Musk ‘is being falsely smeared.’
Some weeks after this, during a Conservative conference in the United States, a former Trump advisor was also criticised for making a similar hand gesture.
Elon Musk, in his latest defence of his salute at Donald Trump’s inaugural parade, invoked the name of several Nazi Germany leaders
He used the names to issue a series of puns in a post to X on Thursday, concluding: ‘Bet you did nazi that coming’
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also came to Musk’s defence, claiming he is a ‘great friend of Israel’ and saying liberals are ‘falsely smearing’ the billionaire
Former White House advisor Steve Bannon has been accused of flashing a Nazi salute during as he addressed MAGA fans at the Conservative Political Action Conference on Thursday
The president of France’s National Rally party, Jordan Bardella, cancelled his speech at a right-wing meeting in Washington after a ‘gesture alluding to Nazi ideology’ by conservative firebrand Steve Bannon
Steve Bannon yelled ‘fight, fight, fight’ before extending his right arm, fingers pointed and palm down, during his speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference (Cpac) near Washington DC.
This led to the French far-right leader Jordan Bardella cancelling his planned speech at the same event and calling Mr Bannon’s action a ‘gesture referring to Nazi ideology’.
Bannon denied the Nazi comparison and called the gesture a ‘wave’, saying it was the ‘exact same wave’ he did on stage at a speech seven years ago in France to Bardella’s party.
‘If he cancelled [the speech] over what the mainstream media said about the speech, he didn’t listen to the speech. If that’s true, he’s unworthy to lead France. He’s a boy, not a man,’ he told the French news magazine Le Point.
