A councillor who quit after suggesting jobless people with more than one child should be sterilised has called for more to be done to tackle “career scroungers”.
John Ward, 58, stepped down as a Tory member of Medway Council this week after making his comments in an internet blog piece.
In the article, which was called What You Probably Won’t Read in the Press, he attacked “professional spongers” who “breed for greed”.
Mr Ward, who was first elected in 2000, resigned on Tuesday after a meeting with senior Tories on the authority.
The former councillor for the Rochester South and Horsted ward told KOS Media that his controversial remarks had been in a “draft message” he had accidentally posted on his blog.
But he said he was pleased that they had sparked a discussion.
Mr Ward said: “I uploaded my draft
message by mistake. But in the end I have got what I wanted and that’s a debate on the subject of benefit scroungers.
“I know there are many people who 100 per cent need benefit help, but I am talking about the career scroungers.
“Their children are going to see their parents grow up doing nothing but claim benefit, and the trend will continue.”
Mr Ward, who has no children, said he has received calls, emails and even parcels to his Chatham home, congratulating him on bringing the subject up.
The former supermarket worker added: “I don’t think people should be sterilised by law, but something needs to be done to create an incentive for people to do more with their lives and not simply rely on the state for a living.
“I regret my comments becoming public, but it has stirred things up, and is making people think about what is happening in the country, and I don’t regret that.
“It is crippling the country, and unless something is done, there is going to be some civil unrest against those people who are simply career scroungers.
“Bringing this up has cost me my political career, but in Soviet Britain, I was required to fall on my sword.”
In the original blog post that caused offence, he had written: “I think there is an increasingly strong case for compulsory sterilisation of all those who have a second, (or third, or whatever) child while living off state hand-outs.”
Senior Tories on Medway Council denied ordering Mr Ward to step down.
Cllr Alan Jarrett, the council’s deputy leader, said: “We didn’t lean on him to resign – we just pointed out the facts and let him make the decision.
“He did the right, sensible and honourable thing.”
Cllr Bill Esterson, Labour spokesman on children’s services on Medway Council, said the comments, “had everything to do with some extreme and very unpleasant views about forced sterilisation of people – the sort of thing that happens in totalitarian regimes, that happened in Nazi Germany.”
And Cllr Paul Godwin, leader of the Labour group said: “The views he expressed were totally appalling as far as I and my colleagues are concerned.”
A spokesman for Medway Council said: “Cllr John Ward, member for Rochester South and Horsted, has tendered his resignation as a member of Medway Council with immediate effect.
“His resignation, to the chief executive, has been noted and accepted.”
POSTED: 29/03/2008 11:00:00