COUNCIL leader Rod Bluh has called for the de-selection of one of Labour’s council candidates who compared a senior Conservative councillor to a member of the Nazi Party.

Geoff Reid, a Labour candidate for Freshbrook, made the remarks about Coun Russell Holland, cabinet member for housing, on the discussion board Talk Swindon as part of posting about the council housing transfer ballot.

On Tuesday Coun Bluh wrote to the Labour group leader, Jim Grant, demanding that Mr Reid is fired as a candidate, threatening that if ‘decisive’ action was not taken within 24 hours, he would ‘escalate this to the highest levels’.

In the posting, Mr Reid claims that the public are now witnessing a campaign of pre-budget blame-laying, and when the budget is set in February, the ‘Bluhligans’ are hoping to have lined up tenants as scapegoats.

He continues: “An awful irony to even consider, but the way Cllr Holland and Co have chosen to 'move the debate forwards' reminds me of the way that Germany's National Socialist Party lined up the Jews to take the blame for many of Germany economic and social ills.”

Coun Bluh said: “This is outrageously offensive. The people of Swindon deserve better than this. The Swindon Labour Group needs to take decisive action to deal with this matter.

“As someone whose relatives were victims of the Holocaust, I have had to put up with vile Nazi slurs like this from this person on previous occasions.”

Coun Holland said: “I have challenged the Leader of the Labour Group to denounce his own candidate within 24 hours and to set out what disciplinary steps will be taken against him.”

A Labour spokesman said they were unable to comment. The regional Labour party, and not the council group, is responsible for deciding whether or not he remains as a candidate.