Conservative Councilman Philip Rose, who was elected in May 2021 to the Derbyshire County Council, is believed to have shared antisemitic posts online as recently as 2019, and was suspended for five years by his party, the Derby Telegraph reported last week (Tory councillor suspended after sharing anti-Semitic social media posts). Now, according to the news website HoldtheFrontPage, Rose “refused to explain himself” after being confronted by a local reporter (Shirtless councillor urged to quit after confrontation with reporter).
The Derbyshire County Council website now lists Councillor Philip Rose’s party affiliation as Independent.
The Derbyshire County Council member was suspended by the Conservative party after the discovery of social media posts with antisemitic conspiracy theories about “Zionist controllers” and “Jewish supremacism.” The Derby Telegraph and the BBC tried to contact Rose by phone and email, but he is not responding to inquiries.
According to the HTFP report, the Telegraph reporter who broke the story, Eddie Bisknell, tracked Rose to his home in the Derbyshire village of Riddings. The councilman was shirtless at the time, and when Bisknell asked him if his constituents deserved an explanation about his 5-year suspension, he answered, “No.”
Bisknell then said that those constituents had been trying to get in touch with Rose for an explanation, and the shirtless councilman said: “Have they? Well, most constituents that I am aware of can get in touch with me, you’ve found me, so there’s no problem with that.”
He then shooed the pesky reporter away from the door before saying “goodbye” and slamming said door behind him.
Bisknell told HTFP that “the brief words the shirtless Cllr Rose was willing to provide have led to more questions from critics, including calls for his resignation.”
