Richard Cotton during his time as a Labour councillor in Camden and his now deleted social media post

A FORMER Mayor of Camden has removed a social post in which he said a Green Party campaign event was “whiter than a Ku Klux Klan rally” ahead of the Holborn and St Pancras by-election. .

As the frontrunners hit Camden Town over the weekend, Richard Cotton was commenting on a picture of Green activists gathered in Castlehaven park.

“Whiter than a Ku Klux Klan rally, but it’s actually a Green Party event in the heart of Holborn & St Pancras,” wrote Mr Cotton. “A constituency that is only 51.8 per cent white (33,6 per cent white British and 18.2 per cent white other). By contrast Camden Labour is truly representative.”

His choice of the KKK as a comparison is understood to make several of his former colleagues at the Town Hall wince.

Zack Polanski addresses a gathering of supporters in Castlehvaen park in Camden Town on Saturday

Mr Cotton already had a reputation for speaking his mind, and he has previously been embroiled in online discussions on gender and clashed with campaigners for trans rights. Since leaving the council in May, he has expanded his ‘speak my mind’ approach to joining debates.

In his previous tweet, he described the Green party candidate Zack Polanski as a “tit whisperer”.

The Ku Klux Klan is a white-supremacist hate group, founded in 1865, which used terrorism, lynching, and intimidation against Black Americans and other minorities.

Ealing MP Rupa Huq amplified Cllr Cotton’s post who said she “wouldn’t agree with the KKK comparison” but Labour had a diverse range of campaigners.

Mr Cotton later deleted his tweet, but said: “I haven’t been forced to delete anything. I deleted it because I could not amend it. I still think parties should look like the communities they serve.”