MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 20th May, 2021) Conservative candidates to UK local elections which were held earlier this month have been accused of using indigenous nomadic groups, namely Gypsies and Travelers, as "political footballs" after the party's Facebook page featured hostile ads pledging to remove illegal Traveler camps, the Guardian reported on Thursday.
The newspaper discovered 47 Facebook ads placed by about 20 different accounts and seen at least 440,000 times since January. The adverts were bought by the local Conservative candidates, who promised to oppose the illegal camps.
"Travellers on the playing field - Conservatives would have taken action to prevent this. Remember the Labour council did nothing, when you vote at the local elections," Dan Collins, a Conservative councilor-elect in Plymouth, said in one of the ads.
According to another advert placed by the newly-elected police and crime commissioner in Gloucestershire, "too many Travellers have exploited weaknesses in the law to act with impunity within our law-abiding communities."
In the meantime, a spokesperson for the Traveler Movement said that the ethnic nomad groups were being used by the government as political tools.
"Politicians use Gypsies and Travellers as political footballs to gain votes and curry favour among the local electorate. This contributes to a climate of hostility which sees Gypsy and Traveller people used as scapegoats by their local politicians. We remind election candidates they have a duty to represent all of their prospective constituents, including Gypsy and Traveller people," the spokesperson said, as quoted by the Guardian.
On May 6, UK citizens headed to polling stations in England, Scotland and Wales to elect their local authorities, from councilors, mayors and members of regional parliaments to police commissioners and one member of the UK Parliament, in the largest elections in 50 years.
As of May 2019, a total of about 63,000 people in the United Kingdom identified themselves as members of the Gypsy and Irish Traveler communities, of whom 58,000 were living in England and Wales. The Southeast region of England has the largest number of Gypsies and Irish Travelers.
