A Tory Suffolk County Councillor who "liked" tweets praising the rioters who invaded the US Capitol on Wednesday is having her social media activity studied by her political leaders.
Kay Oakes represents the Bosmere Division at Endeavour House - and regularly tweets her support for outgoing US President Donald Trump. However she did get in trouble with her social media earlier this year after she appeared to back calls not to wear facemasks.
On Wednesday evening - as pro-Trump rioters laid siege to to the Senate and the House of Representatives - she "liked" tweets that described those in Washington as "Peaceful, hard-working Americans smeared as mobs" and also liked conspiracy-theory claims that the protesters were left-wing activists who masquerading as Trump supporters to discredit the outgoing president.
She has been re-selected to contest her seat in May's elections by the Bury St Edmunds Constituency Conservative Association - unlike former council chair Jane Storey who was dropped by the party and has subsequently resigned the Tory whip at the council.
The chair of BSECCA, Paul Rayner said: "Kay has been a good local councillor since her election in 2018 and has been re-selected as a candidate to stand as a candidate later this year.
"My colleagues and I at BSECCA condemn the disgraceful scenes in the U.S. Congress this week and agree with the Prime Minister when he said the United States stands for democracy around the world.
"As has been said, it is now absolutely vital that there should be a peaceful and orderly transfer of power to President-Elect Joe Biden."
Suffolk County Council leader Matthew Hicks said he had been made aware of Ms Oakes' twitter activity for a second time and would be looking at what she had said.
The Labour opposition at the county council were not impressed. Labour councillor Jack Abbott described the riot as a "violent attack on democracy".
He said: "It was then pretty galling to see a fellow councillor not just double down on their backing for Donald Trump, but to fervently support the conspiracy theories used to undermine the US election, too."
He said the Conservatives had to decide whether they feel that this is the sort of candidate they want representing their party at this summer’s election.
We called Ms Oakes and left a message asking her to contact us but have had no response.
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