Complaint made over Mayor of Erewash's 'racist comment' at council meeting
He has apologised for his actions
The Mayor of Erewash has apologised after telling fellow councillors to 'play the white man'.
A formal complaint has been made against Conservative councillor Christopher Corbett.
He made the comment during a full council meeting on Thursday, November 8,Derbyshire Live reports
It was during a heated debate over plans to sign over therunning of five leisure centres to a private company that the comment was made.
Councillor Corbett said that he selected a poor choice of words to calm down the situation so that each councillor had a fair opportunity to be heard.
He apologised on the night, after being prompted by Labour’s Councillor Dan Treacy.
Councillor Corbett told theLocal Democracy Reporting Service: "There were continuous interruptions, and I was trying to make councillors be fair, and let each other speak.
"However, the way I chose to do this was by using the wrong set of words, I said 'come on, play the white man.'
"It is not the right thing to say, and I apologised right away.
"I am sorry and I apologised right away, and that seemed to be the end of it.
"We all make mistakes, we are not perfect.
"Sometimes people do get upset and I don’t want to be the cause of that."
COUNCILS AND POLITICS
The term, 'play the white man' is believed to mean 'Do the right thing' along with, 'be decent and trustworthy', but has fallen into disrepute due to the potential connotation that white people are better than other ethnicities.
Ian Sankey, director of resources and deputy chief executive at Erewash Borough Council, said: "We can confirm that a complaint has been received and this is currently being dealt with by the council."