Reform reject calls to sack cabinet member over ‘offensive social media posts’

Reform councillors have rejected a call to sack a cabinet member over the alleged posting offensive social media posts.

Cllr Ritchie Massey, cabinet member for adult services, health and wellbeing at Sandwell Council, was accused by Labour opposition councillors of failing to uphold standards over historic anti-Catholic social media posts.

Labour had called on Sandwell Council leader Ray Nock to ‘revise’ his appointments over the offensive social media posts on a page in Cllr Massey’s name but the motion by opposition leader Paul Moore was rejected at Tuesday’s full council meeting with Reform saying that “due process” needed to be followed.

Cllr Moore said he was raising “legitimate questions regarding accountability and leadership” and called on Cllr Nock to review his cabinet appointments “in the interests of maintaining public confidence in the council.”

Cllr Massey, who was elected for Reform in Rowley in May, had already been criticised for opening Massey’s Cafe in Fountain Lane, Oldbury, without planning permission in 2024.

The cabinet member applied for planning permission in February 2025 but was rejected yet remained open and a planning application was submitted again in May which is still to be decided.

The social media posts on a page seemingly belonging to Cllr Massey angered Labour councillor Connor Horton who said at the meeting the cabinet member should be “ashamed of himself.” Cllr Horton also criticised Reform councillor Pete Durnell for making light of the situation.

Responding to Labour’s motion, Cllr Pete Durnell said: “This is a Labour council that unfortunately has been synonymous with corruption, cronyism, lack of transparency, and inefficiency.

“Being lectured about wasting public money, about the conduct of our members, is a little bit like being lectured by Hannibal Lecter on eating red meat.

“So I think we need to look back on the last twenty years.”

Cllr Horton responded: “I have to say, I’m incredibly frustrated tonight at Councillor Durnell, who’s tried to make a joke out of an incredibly serious motion when very serious concerns have been raised about one of the cabinet members and his conduct.

“I am a devout Catholic, and my faith is everything to me and everything I am and to see what I read when it was showed it to me, sectarianism from a councillor in this chamber, and now I’m having Reform members making jokes about standards, they are not fit for purpose, and they should be ashamed of themselves.”

Reform councillor Tuli Zefi said the council chamber should not “become a courtroom” and said the “proper process” was already in place to “examine any concerns.”

“If standards need to be upheld, then they should be upheld fairly and consistently without fear or favour, regardless of political party,” he told the meeting.

“What I cannot support is setting a precedent where political disagreement or public controversy becomes the basis for the council to pass judgement through motions such as this.”

Cllr Nock said there was “no way alive” he would allow the council to return to the “bad days” of government intervention in Sandwell.

Sandwell Council was placed in special measures in 2022 and government commissioners highlighted a “total breakdown of communication between councillors and staff” at the Labour-run authority.

“I will do everything in my power, including adding the Nolan principle steps, all seven of them, to every meeting so as everybody is fully aware that there’s decency and respect and proper leadership must be adhered to.”

Green councillor John Tipper replied: “A lot of things went wrong in Sandwell but the leader of the council that immediately precipitated the intervention of commissioners is now the Reform councillor for Bartley Green.”