A SUSPENDED Conservative councillor who blamed Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) communities for the latest local lockdown restrictions last month has been removed from his role on a housing association board.

Cllr Bob Allen is no longer on the Bolton At Home board after discussions with Bolton Council which had previously nominated him to the position.

This comes after a late-night social media outburst by the Bolton councillor in response to new regional restrictions which came into force on July 31.

In the Facebook post, Cllr Allen said he should not be penalised for the rise in COVID-19 cases, but instead “the 48,000 illegal immigrants, the BAME community and the morons that never obey the rules” should be blamed.

He also blamed Public Health England “idiots”, NHS managers and his own government, as well as “the Chinese” for “concealing the true facts”.

The long-serving councillor was swiftly suspended from the Conservative group following a meeting of senior figures in the ruling administration.

This is the second suspension for Cllr Allen who posted a picture of a gorilla next to a story about a fellow councillor on an internet blog in 2009.

Cllr Allen will have the opportunity to defend his comments in a private virtual meeting with the Conservative group in Bolton early next week.

After the meeting on Monday, Conservative councillors will decide whether to take any further action against him the options of censuring him, suspending him for a period of time or expelling him entirely from the local Tory group.

The matter has been raised at a national level which means action could be taken to remove him from the Conservative Party completely.

This week, The Bolton News revealed that a secondary school where Cllr Allen serves as a governor has distanced itself from his comments and have reported the councillor to the local authority following his Facebook post.

The Local Democracy Reporting Service now understands that Cllr Allen has been removed from the board of housing association Bolton At Home.

Jon Lord, chief executive officer of the housing association, confirmed Cllr Allen is no longer on the board and will be replaced by the council soon.

He said: “Cllr Allen was nominated to our board by Bolton Council.

“Following recent discussions between Bolton at Home and the Council, it can be confirmed that this is no longer the case and the Council will be making a new nomination in due course.”

Cllr Allen chose not to comment when approached by The Bolton News.