Brighton Councillor "Fake Figures" Verdict

A Brighton and Hove city councillor has broken the council’s code of conduct by calling rough sleeper figures “fake”.

Conservative councillor Robert Nemeth was found in breach of Brighton and Hove City Council’s code of conduct for a post he made on Brighton and Hove’s new Facebook page.

He was writing in response to an article about an audit of rough sleeper figures when he said:

“All councillors know that the figures are fake.

“I’m surprised that the administration is prolonging this story by trying to keep up the deception.”

Following a two-and-a-half hour standards panel hearing on Monday 21 September, the panel, which included three councillors, one from each of the main political parties in Brighton and Hove, decided that Councillor Nemeth had brought his office into disrepute.

The panel also found that Councillor Nemeth did not co-operate with the council investigation.

As a result Councillor Nemeth was asked to discuss his choice of language with the Conservative group leader, Councillor Steve Bell, when publishing his views on social media, to avoid further breaches.

He was also asked to work with Councillor Bell to understand the importance of his co-operation to reduce the cost of standards investigations.

In its decision, the panel said that councillors were judged to a higher standard than other members of the public.

The panel said:

“The panel found that the language used by Councillor Nemeth did not meet the standards expected of an elected councillor.

“To allege that figures were ‘fake’ indicated a degree of deliberate falsification of the figures, which was quite clearly not the case.

“The figures followed an approved methodology and were properly collated following that methodology and independently verified both on the night and subsequently by an internal audit that was requested by Councillor Nemeth and colleagues.

“At the panel hearing Councillor Nemeth and his witnesses objected to the comparison that was made between these figures and those of the previous year.

“However, the Facebook post made no such distinction and alleged the figures themselves to be ‘fake’.”

The panel also said that the comment that “all councillors” knew of a deception suggested that councillors were “covering up information”.

During the hearing Councillor Nemeth said that it was part of his role to challenge the official line and said that the official figures for 2018 used a different method to 2017 and were not comparable.

He continued to criticise the administration’s response to the fall in the official number of rough sleepers from 178 in 2017 to 64 in 2018 because of the change from an estimate in 2017 to a headcount which took place on a snowy night in 2018.

At the hearing Councillor Nemeth and his witnesses said that his language was “hyperbole”.

As he continued to use the same language before and during the hearing, the panel said that it was “disappointed” that he was not able to “articulate his frustration about the methodology” without using “intemperate” language.

After initially engaging with the investigation, Councillor Nemeth was said to have disengaged until he requested witnesses at a late stage, which resulted in a delay to the panel hearing, resulting in the second finding of a breach of the code of conduct.

Councillor Nemeth said:

“It tells you all that you need to know about politics in Brighton and Hove when the Labour Party reports those who highlight their fake figures on serious issues but doesn’t report those who make comments which the Jewish community finds deeply offensive.

“This will obviously not put me off continuing to scrutinise an administration that has let so many down so badly – including of course those who are sleeping rough.”

Councillor Nemeth has a right of appeal.