'Embarrassing!' Labour councillor lambasted after call to scrap 'offensive' shirt and tie dress code: 'It is shameful!'

Speaking in the council's meeting, the councillor said: "We have got to recognise that in this area we have now got more ethnicity, more religious groupings that are not what we would call the white ethnic groupings.

"If we mean by standard attire, a suit, a collar and tie, that would be inappropriate attire for those people and they would find it extremely offensive."

Reacting to the remarks on GB News, Reform UK councillor for North East Lincolnshire Oliver Freeston said the comments make him "want to rip his hair out", branding them "shameful".

Freeston fumed: "It makes you want to rip your hair out. Imagine having the misfortune of having to sit through a council meeting and listen to this absolute nonsense.

"Although I suppose it's true, if they're going to govern like clowns, then why wouldn't they dress like them? It's embarrassing."

Freeston argued that suggesting the dress code of a shirt and tie is "offensive" to ethnic minorities is "offensive in itself".

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Freeston stated: "We've got a white man being offended on behalf of different ethnicities. But when you actually speak to them and you say is there any reason you couldn't wear a shirt and tie, they go absolutely not.

"So actually, I would say that it's quite offensive to say that certain ethnicities can't wear a shirt. It's absolute nonsense."

Noting the responsibility of the councillors to deliver for their constituents, Freeston raged that if councillors "can't be bothered" to dress in shirt and tie, they "shouldn't bother coming in at all".

Freeston told GB News: "If anybody turned up without it without good reason, I would tell them to leave the meeting, end of story.

"Because we've been elected by our constituents, and if you can't be bothered to put a shirt and tie on and show the respect to the people that put you there, then don't bother coming."

He added: "Now, of course there are exceptions, there's people who have an emergency that has come up or they've got back from work later than they expected, fair enough, we'll make exceptions as one off.

"But to make it a blanket rule of dressing however you like, it is absolutely ridiculous and shameful."

Revealing that he was the "sole councillor" who spoke up against the remarks, Freeston concluded: "The sad thing is I was the lone voice in the chamber to say this is absolute rubbish.

"The Tories joined forces with Labour, and that's why they're currently unelectable.

"People are scared of being offensive, and that's why I love being part of Reform, but we've certainly got to stand up and we've got to fight back on this nonsense."