Lancashire county councilor faces no charges over Facebook post
A Lancashire county councilor says he feels “vindicated” after being told he will not be charged following a police investigation into one of his social media posts.
Michael Lavalette, who represents the Preston Central division at County Hall, attended what was described to him as a “voluntary police interview” earlier this month.
As the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) previously revealed, detectives were looking into whether he had committed a race hate crime under public order legislation.
Lancashire Constabulary said on Friday no further action will be taken against County Cllr Lavalette, who sits as an independent, but recently announced he would be joining the new party being formed by Jeremy Corbyn.
The police probe came after two complaints were made about a Facebook post in which County Cllr Lavalette captioned an image of a demonstration against the ongoing war in Gaza with the words: “There is only one solution Intifada, Revolution”.
The Arab word “intifada” has a varied history and is defined by Encyclopedia Britannica as an “uprising or rebellion”. In English, however, it is most commonly associated with two periods of Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip – which collectively resulted in more than 6,000 deaths on both sides of the conflict.
County Cllr Lavalette said he had been accused of using the term to advocate violence against Jews, which he vehemently denied.
Speaking to the LDRS after being advised he would not face charges, he said the outcome was a riposte to “a very small and vocal minority who wanted to shut down the pro- Palestinian protest locally”.
“I think they thought if they could silence me and one or two others, it would intimidate the Palestine movement in Preston. – that’s why we were determined that we would fight this as hard as we possibly could. In our view, it’s absolutely right to speak out when a genocide is happening and we have to stand up if we are intimidated,” County Cllr Lavalette said.
The Israeli government denies that is committing genocide and says it is targeting the Hamas terrorists responsible for the October 7th attack in 2023, in which 1,200 Isarelis were killed and 200 taken hostage. Since then, more than 62,000 Gazans have died in Israel’s military response in the territory, according to the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry.
Last month, Jeremy Dable, the Jewish community representative on Preston’s Faith Covenant, told the LDRS he was “deeply angered” and felt “harassed and threatened” by the use of the word intifada, because of its “unambiguous historical association with periods of murderous violence against Jews”.
‘The police asked me if I knew what the Holocaust was’
County Cllr Lavalette revealed that the first 15 minutes of his police interview consisted of his solicitor reading out a pre-prepared statement which explored the complexities surrounding the concept of an “intifada” – and attested that it did not “inherently connote violence”
It also set out the politician’s background as an academic who had taught on issues of race and racism – and even authored the first social work text in the UK to include a chapter specifically on antisemitism.
He told the LDRS that his “anti-racist” beliefs made it “very difficult” to have to answer “no comment” – on the advice of his solicitor – to the volley of questions that followed, which included: “Are you an anti-Semite?” and “Have you heard of the Holocaust?”
He said the latter was in relation to the suggestion that his use of the word “solution” was an implicit reference to Hitler’s ‘final solution’ to eradicate Jews during World War Two.
“I wanted to say, ‘That’s just ludicrous,’” County Cllr Lavalette said.
“That’s not at all what it means – it comes from the slogan of the African National Congress the political party born out of opposition to apartheid in South Africa.
“When I used to go on anti-apartheid demonstrations, there used to be a chant that was sung: ‘One solution – revolution’.
“The phrase I posted on Facebook is a sort of Arabic equivalent of that famous slogan,” he said.
County Cllr Lavalette said while he was always “fairly confident” he would not be charged, he was nevertheless “relieved” to have it confirmed. “It’s always there at the back of your mind,” he added.
A spokesperson for Lancashire Constabulary said: “We have voluntarily interviewed a man in his 60s from Preston in relation to an investigation into a social media post on Facebook.
“The investigation relates to an alleged offence under Section 18 of the Public Order Act.
“Following enquiries and consultation with the Crown Prosecution Service, no further action will be taken against the individual.”
As the LDRS revealed last month, a series of separate complaints about County Cllr Lavalette’s Facebook post were also lodged with Lancashire County Council, but they were dismissed, because the post was from a personal social media account and not written in his capacity as a councillor.
A spokesperson for the authority said at the time it “does not endorse the views expressed” and that it had reminded County Cllr Lavalette – who sits as part of the Progressive Alliance official opposition at County Hall, made up of independent and Green Party members – of his “responsibilities in public office.”