Tory election candidate suspended over Facebook posts about ‘invasion of Islam’ and ‘stoning’ refugees

A Tory candidate for the local elections has been suspended after posting on Facebook about an “invasion of Islam” and “stoning migrants”.

Stuart Peach was standing to be elected as a Conservative councillor in Ashfield, where the party’s deputy chairman Lee Anderson is the local MP.

But social media posts from 2019 have been unearthed which reportedly show Mr Peach referring to asylum seekers crossing the channel as “invaders”.

He has since been suspended by the party, pending an investigation, but will appear on ballots as a Tory candidate because it is too late to make the change.

According to The Mirror, Mr Peach questioned what would happen if “the English started to take the law into their own hands” to deal with the issue. In another post, he allegedly wrote: “We have never been asked if we want this invasion of Islam.”

He also used his social media to praise home secretary Suella Braverman. Alongside a picture of the Cabinet minister, he is said to have posted: “We the people stand with this fine lady to defend ‘our shores’. Stop the invasion!”

In one post, Mr Peach asked: “What would happen if 200,000 Englishmen marched down to Dover and started stoning the migrants?”

A Conservative party spokesman said: “Officers of the federation have decided to suspend Stuart Peach pending an investigation.”

Mr Peach is listed on the ballot paper for the ward of Leamington in Ashfield, Nottinghamshire, which Mr Anderson represented since 2019.

He has sparked controversy in the past with comments including a claim that Calais refugee charities are “just as bad as people smugglers”. The outspoken MP accused the organisations of “fuelling” migrants’ desire to cross the English Channel in small boats.

He was also criticised for boycotting the England men’s games during the Euro 2020 football tournament over the team’s decision to take the knee before kick-off in protest at racism.

Mr Anderson said he was “pleased” Mr Peach had been immediately suspended. He told The Independent: “I am pleased to see that he was immediately suspended from the local Conservative Federation and a full investigation is carried out. I do not condone this sort of language and neither does my party.”

It comes as another Conservative politician is being investigated over racist comments after allegedly saying “all white men should have a Black slave”.

Andrew Edwards, a county councillor and former magistrate in Pembrokeshire, is also accused of saying Black people are of “lower class” than white people during a clip that has emerged online. Mr Edwards has referred himself to the Public Services ombudsman.

On the 16-second recording, a man can be heard saying: “Nothing wrong with the skin colour at all. (...) I think all white men should have a Black man as a slave or Black woman as a slave, you know.”

“There’s nothing wrong with skin colour, it’s just that they’re lower class than us white people.”

The Independent has tried to reach Mr Peach for comment.