A Leicestershire councillor who accused residents of being "anti-British" and "far-left extremists" after two men erected St George flags in a village has been sanctioned by bosses.

Members of Leicestershire County Council's Member Conduct Panel sat on Tuesday (May 5) to discuss an investigation into Councillor Charles Whitford's conduct after he was accused of "bullying" a resident and "failing to treat members of the public with respect" over a row relating to St George's flags.

According to an investigation report, two unknown men were erecting St George's flags on lampposts along Main Street and Ashby Street in Markfield on September 21, 2025.

The complainants, called A, B, C and D, all said they witnessed the event with one recording a video of it where one of the men allegedly told one complainant to "**** off" and called them the C-word.

Complainant D and her neighbours removed the flags from outside their homes before being confronted by two other aggressive men, leading to the police being called.

Shortly after the event, Complainant C emailed Cllr Whitford, saying they were "utterly disgusted" that "racist ideology [was] … using misappropriation of our country's flag" and erecting the flags was "using patriotism as a smokescreen for their obvious racism".

However, Cllr Whitford, who was a Reform and cabinet member at the time, replied to them saying he was "shocked by [their] response to seeing our beautiful English flag" and he "loved to see the flags flying" and he "smiled at every sight of them".

He told the complainant that "the flags are being raised to make a statement that most of the people in the UK reject the far left movement as it is anti-British and the destruction of British values and the influx of soon to be millions of mainly muslim men of fighting age coming here to make this country a Muslim state".

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He also asked the complainant if they "could live in Britain as a Islamic state under sharia law" and that he could not. He said he was "disappointed" in the complainant before signing off.

Shortly after, Complainant A emailed Cllr Whitford, who emailed a formal complaint about the flags, noting that the unknown men expressed "racist and homophobic views".

Cllr Whitford said he was "shocked" that the complainant "took offence to our beautiful English flag", asked if they were "anti-British" and that "95 per cent of English and British love seeing the flags", adding that the other five per cent were "far left extremists".

He also said he was "disappointed" in the person who emailed him.

Complainant D also emailed Cllr Whitford a few days after saying they were concerned the flags were "placed there by two drunk men, in darkness,

on a Sunday evening", claiming the men said they would "be better off living in Palestine".

They also said that they were concerned the flags were "being co-opted to

represent anti-immigration and racist/lslamophobic ideologies" and asked Cllr Whitford's opinion.

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In response, Cllr Whitford emailed back asking them to "reevaluate [their] own political agenda" and that "98 per cent of British people are in favour of flying these flags".

Formal complaints were then sent to the county council, after which an independent investigation was conducted into Cllr Whitford to determine whether he had broken the council's code of conduct.

Investigators found that Cllr Whitford made an "egregious breach" of the code by using "inflammatory tropes regarding "Sharia law" and "Islamic colonisation" within an official response to a constituent".

They also found that he "used his official platform to attempt to shame those who were expressing concerns".

Allegations were also made that Cllr Whitford created fake social media accounts under the names "Leicestershire Times" and "Mark Ford".

Investigators decided not to make a formal finding of the allegation but found that "the most plausible conclusion" was Cllr Whitford created the accounts "to disparage his political opponents and defend himself under a veil of anonymity".

During the meeting, Cllr Whitford, who now represents Restore Britain, said he believed the investigation was "flawed" and "weighted" and that it didn't take into account other witnesses that he brought forward.

He said that the investigators "formed a conclusion so far away from the truth" and information was "ignored" while the complaints were part of an "organised attack" on him.

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However, he said he accepted the report's findings and apologised many times for his conduct in the emails, adding that he still believed what he had sent in the emails "was true" but should have "responded differently".

He added: "I have learned from this obviously and it has cost me dearly. My position on cabinet, gone. My future with Reform: gone and my allowance: gone.

"Whatever you do with me, it can not be worse than what I have already received".

The conduct panel unanimously agreed that Cllr Whitford had breached the code of conduct. The panel recommended that Cllr Whitford be formally censured for what it called "unacceptable behaviour to members of the public" as well as issue a public apology at a full council meeting, with an apology also being published online on the council's website.