Landlords’ complaints over councillor’s ‘entitled parasites’ comment dismissed

An independent councillor who referred to private landlords as ‘entitled parasites’ on social media has had complaints against him thrown out by an ethics watchdog, the Edinburgh Evening News reports.

Coun Ross McKenzie made the comments during a discussion about new short-term let regulations – angering three landlords who filed complaints to the ethical standards commissioner about his conduct.

The complaints were made on the grounds that the comments were bullying, disrespectful and amounted to discrimination against landlords.

16 flats were owned by private landlords

The councillor made the comment after discovering from the landlord register that almost all 16 flats in one tenement building were owned by private landlords.

He had said there should be zero short-term lets but deleted the post later saying it had been ‘flippant’.

But then he hit back at claims by a private landlord that councillors ‘never worked tirelessly to make ends meet’.

Coun McKenzie replied: “I have worked tirelessly in health and social care for the past 20 years while handing over a huge proportion of my income to landlords who contribute nothing. Thousands of people in Edinburgh are in the same boat and need representation far more than these entitled parasites.”

Make ‘offensive’ comments about landlords

One landlord replied demanding a retraction claiming it was unacceptable for an elected representative to make ‘offensive’ comments about landlords, who would be among those living in his ward.

However, the complaints were rejected by the watchdog which concluded that the criticism was of ‘landlords in general’ and was not directed at any individual landlord.

Coun McKenzie repeated the statement saying landlords are ‘parasites’ on December 11 in a tweet confirming the decision to throw out the complaints.

Not directed at any individual landlord

The standards commissioner ruled that there was no evidence to suggest that the councillor’s comments were directed at any individual landlord but of ‘landlords in general’,

he commissioner also noted that the councillor’s comments were made in the context of a discussion about new short-term let regulations.

The commissioner found that the councillor’s comments were not discriminatory – but could be seen as disrespectful and ‘impolite’ – and that they did not breach the councillors’ code of conduct.

Speaking to the newspaper, Coun McKenzie said the claims had been ‘spurious’ and that the term ‘landlord’ was a ‘protected characteristic under the Equality Act 2010’.

He added: “Landlordism is inherently parasitic – landlords receive rent simply because they happen to own a piece of land and the rent they receive comes from the labour of their tenants. This statement is not controversial.”