Withington labour councillor standing for re-election today tweeted that women are ‘c*nts’

A Labour Councillor re-standing in today's election has used the c-word more than a dozen times over the last few years, either in his own posts or retweets of others and described women as "slobs”, “cows”, “c*nts” and “b*tches”.

Withington Councillor Chris Paul has been forced to apologise by the Labour party but has been allowed to stand for re-election today despite sharing comments about a "b*tch" British journalist who “needs a slap. Fact.”

In other appalling posts directed at women, he tells one to "shut up", introduces another as “that little cow”, whilst another is “utterly illiterate or writing grade [of] a weasel”.

In a post to a female peer, he corrected his post from suggesting she should give someone “a punch” to a “slap” instead.

Also amidst the flurry of online abuse were posts about “Tory Jews”, “clotty period blood” and further comments about a female journalist walking "the difficult tightrope between being a b*tch and a c*nt.”

He also describes political opponents as "twats", "d*cks" and even tweeted former leader Ed Milliband to "slap" one.

Paul has been an approved Labour candidate since 2006 and an elected Manchester councillor since 2011.

Incredibly, two weeks after the reports first surfaced, Labour are still to take action and as of yet, no Labour Councillor has publicly condemned the offensive comments.

Mike Cordingley, a neighbouring Labour councillor, seemingly defended Chris Paul, responding to the initial reports of abusive comments, that he had “also done more to promote clean air, active travel and sustainable public transport than any other candidate across GM.”

John Hacking, a Labour councillor in Chorlton, brushed the comments aside saying it was “just a twitter storm” and that he had “no opinion really”.

When the staggering comments were first exposed, Paul denied the behaviour, blaming malicious Photoshopping and an account hack. However, he has since deleted his account and issued an apology.

He said: “I would like to apologise for any offence caused by postings that I tweeted or retweeted before I came on the council or more recently as a councillor.

“Many of these were done when I was a private citizen and twitter was in its infancy.

“It is clear that I exercised bad judgement on occasions and I will not repeat this in future.”

However some have said an apology is not enough and slammed Labour’s blasé attitude warning that unless the party takes serious action, they are condoning the promotion of violence against women.

Jen Izaakson, a campaigner from Labour’s Mayday4Women movement added further pressure to the party, claiming Paul’s comments sought to “normalise misogyny.”

Izaakson said: “Violence against women, which kills two every week in the UK, needs to be condemned, whether in practice or any normalising of it in everyday speech, as Chris Paul’s comments seek to do.

“Comments which talk about women needing ‘a slap’, ‘a punch’ and the varying use of sexist slurs clearly indicate deeply-held misogynist beliefs, and a culture of institutional sexism in Labour that has been allowed to fester. The appalling lack of action from the party reflects a wider pattern."

Liberal Democrat Councillor John Leech, who led the campaign to implement the life saving dating app scheme 'Ask for Angela' in Manchester, said: “Unless Labour disown Chris Paul as a candidate and expel him from the Labour Party, they are effectively condoning the promotion of violence against women, and setting a standard that permits elected representatives to spout vile and abusive comments online.

“I find it utterly inconceivable that he should be allowed to stand under a Labour banner when he has incited violence and hatred against women and minority groups."

A spokesperson for the Manchester Labour group said: “He has been given a first and final warning for the tones of these tweets. These postings are not acceptable from a Labour councillor in Manchester.”

But Izaakson says this still doesn't go far enough.

“Misogyny is a huge problem in our society today and people like Chris Paul should not be allowed anywhere near elected office, let alone on behalf of a party committed to social betterment."

“The Labour party should be condemning and expelling him, not endorsing him as a candidate.”

John Leech also condemned the apology, adding: “If Jeremy Corbyn’s promise to take complaints seriously is worth anything, they will get rid of Chris Paul without any further delay and show how serious they are about clamping down on discriminatory and abusive behaviour in the Labour Party ranks.”

A Labour Party spokesperson said: “The Labour Party takes any complaints of online abuse extremely seriously. All complaints are fully investigated in line with our procedures.”

Greater Manchester Police have also launched an investigation after receiving reports of posts that promoted physical violence against women.

Chris Paul is standing for re-election in Withington today, Thursday 3rd Man 2018.