During the phone conversation, the call handler tried to tell the councillor about “disruptive sounds” on the line and asked her to repeat certain information.
According to the ombudsman’s report, Cleverly then interrupted the call handler and said: “I’m sorry, can I speak to somebody who’s speaking English?”
A few minutes later, the call handler was clarifying details when Cleverly said: “Sorry? I can’t understand anything you’re saying. Speak English.”
Cleverly emailed the council’s cabinet member responsible for environmental matters latter that day in which she wrote: “I am all for equal opportunity but this person took all my information wrong after I had to repeat everything 3-4 times and spell everything lots of times.”
A manager in the customer services team listened to the recorded call and flagged concerns about the councillor’s “unnecessary” tone, prompting a probe.
A council monitoring officer said he considered the call handler’s English to be fluent and Cleverly’s comments to be “consciously or otherwise, racially motivated” and “discriminatory”.
