A councillor criticised for sharing a “shockingly racist meme” online has avoided suspension.

Independent councillor Ken Robson was reported to Durham County Council after sharing the post on Facebook last week.

The Aycliffe West councillor apologised for his actions but accused a rival councillor who reported him of “political point scoring”. 

The post was deleted and considered by Durham County Council’s monitoring officer after a complaint from Cllr Eddy Adam. 

Labour member Adam, also of Aycliffe West, said Cllr Robson was “trying to hide behind his grave error of judgment by making this out to be a political issue” and criticised his political rival.

“He openly shared a shockingly racist meme and it needed calling out,” Cllr Adam said. 

He added that Cllr Robson ignored requests for the post to be deleted “and posted further rants which led me to believe that he agreed with the sentiments in the meme.”

He argued Cllr Robson’s actions broke the councillors code of conduct. 

Cllr Robson was ordered to issue an apology and undertake education and diversity training following an investigation by the local authority. 

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The decision notice by the council’s governance lawyer stated: “Whatever [Cllr Robson’s] motives or intention may have been, by allowing this post to remain on his Facebook page, and by appearing to justify it when challenged, the likely perception is that he subjected members of non-White ethnic minority groups to personal attack. 

“It is likely this behaviour has brought the office of [Cllr Robson] and the local authority into disrepute, in that it is likely to be regarded as sufficiently serious to damage the reputation of [Cllr Robson’s] office, and the reputation of the local authority, as opposed simply to damaging the reputation of [Cllr Robson].”

Following the judgement, Cllr Robson told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: “In line with advice from the monitoring officer’s lawyer I have apologised on my Facebook page as requested to anyone who may have been offended.”