Councillor expelled over burka 'bin bag' post appointed Enfield's Deputy Mayor

Chris Joannides, the Southgate ward Conservative councillor who was expelled from his own party in 2013 over a Facebook post comparing burka-clad Muslim women to bin bags, has been appointed Deputy Mayor of Enfield.

The appointment was confirmed at the council's Annual Meeting on 27 May, when Town ward councillor Emma Supple was sworn in as Mayor and Cllr Joannides as her deputy, following the Conservatives' return to power in Enfield after 16 years of Labour control.

The Mayor and Deputy Mayor are expected to attend hundreds of civic and community engagements over the coming year, representing the council at events across Enfield's diverse boroughs - including within the borough's sizeable Muslim and Turkish communities.

What happened in 2013

In September 2013, Cllr Joannides was deselected as a Conservative candidate and suspended from the party for 12 months by Conservative Central Office, after a photograph was shared on his Facebook profile showing a woman and child in burkas standing next to two bin bags, captioned with a joke about mistaking the woman's children for rubbish.

The Conservative group on Enfield council had already withdrawn the whip from him after printouts of the post were shown to then group leader Michael Lavender. A party spokesman said at the time that Cllr Joannides would not be endorsed as a candidate and was expelled from the party for 12 months, with no right of appeal against the non-endorsement decision.

Cllr Joannides said the image had been shared by a friend on his account and that he deleted it as soon as he saw it, but not before someone had photographed it. He described the post as "blokeish banter" and said he had been cleared both by police, following a six-month investigation, and by his local Conservative association, which had also reselected him to stand in the 2014 local elections before Central Office intervened.

Joanne McCartney, then Labour's London Assembly member for Enfield and Haringey, said at the time: "This was completely inappropriate for an elected representative. Residents have to be confident that people who make decisions on their behalf have the well-being of everyone at heart."

Cllr Joannides was re-admitted to the Conservative Party after his suspension period and continued to serve as a councillor for Southgate.

The story now

[Space reserved for response from Enfield Council press office / Cllr Alessandro Georgiou's office]

[Space reserved for response or right of reply from Cllr Chris Joannides]

[Space reserved for comment from Cllr Ergin Erbil, Labour group leader]

[Space reserved for comment from Cllr Sarah Jons, Green group leader]

Why it matters

The Deputy Mayor's role is ceremonial rather than decision-making, but it is also one of the most visible civic positions in the borough - a stand-in for the Mayor at events ranging from Remembrance services to school prizegivings to interfaith and community celebrations. Enfield is home to significant Muslim and Turkish-Cypriot communities, among many others, and the Mayoralty is explicitly framed by the council as a role that represents "Enfield's wonderful communities" as a whole.

Pipeline News is not suggesting Cllr Joannides's views today are what they were reported to be in 2013. The public record shows he denied writing the post himself, was cleared by both police and his local party, and was permitted to return to frontline politics. What this piece asks is a narrower question: given that record is public and searchable, did Enfield's new council leadership weigh it before appointing him to a role built around representing the whole borough - and if so, on what basis did they conclude it was compatible?