A COUNCILLOR has apologised for a tweet comparing the Royal Borough leader to the North Korean Dictator Kim Jong-un.

The Borough First councillor Geoff Hill (Oldfield) has publicly apologised for his ‘ill judged’ tweet, which has since been deleted, calling the leader of the council, Cllr Andrew Johnson (Con: Hurley & Walthams), ‘Cllr Andrew Kim Jong Johnson’.

Following the recent full council meeting on April 27, he posted: “Cllr [Johnson] has now restricted full debate at full RBWM council so your councillors have lost speaking rights.

“This is undemocratic and dictatorial. Congratulations Cllr Andrew Kim Jong Johnson for crushing democracy.”

Cllr Hills tweet

Cllr Hill's tweet

Speaking to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, Cllr Hill said he tweeted that ‘out of frustration’ after requests, amendments, and motions from the opposition was ‘shot down’ by the Conservatives during that full council meeting.

Cllr Hill put forward a motion at the meeting for the ‘arbitrary’ 30-minute time limit on debates to be scrapped, calling this cap ‘anti-democratic’.

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The ruling Tory party opposed the Independent Cllr’s motion, arguing the 30-minute rule keeps debate concise and to the point, and it can be extended at the Mayor’s discretion if they so choose to.

Following his motion’s defeat, Cllr Hill said that’s when his frustration ‘boiled over’ and decided to tweet out his remarks.

Cllr Hill has apologised and acknowledged he shouldn’t have tweeted that, but added he believes this ‘absurd’ time cap should still be binned so everyone can have their say without the fear of being blocked due to time constraints.

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He said: “My view is that we’re not fully representing the public because we’re not all been given the opportunity to speak.

“If you don’t want to be here till late, then you’re in the wrong place because part of the public duty of a councillor is to represent the public and it takes as long as it takes.

“If you can’t make it, then, frankly, you should step down.”

The motion fell with 18 councillors voting for and 22 against.