Council workers have demanded the resignation of the opposition leader over remarks she made about a contestant on I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here on Twitter.

More than 150 Harrow Council employees signed a UNISON union petition requesting Councillor Susan Hall, the Conservative group leader and a ward councillor for Hatch End, step down from the authority due to her comments about Gemma Collins.

Ms Collins, who came to prominence a few years back on the ITV reality soap The Only Way Is Essex, only lasted three days on the primetime gameshow show in which a bunch of famous people are confined to an Australian jungle camp and must compete in a variety of horrible physical challenges to win food and favour.

Ms Hall posted on November 16 on her @Councillorsuzie account:


Two identical petitions, handed in to the council's cabinet committee meeting on Thursday by UNISON representatives Gary Martin and Davis Searles, said: "We the undersigned staff of the London Borough of Harrow ask Harrow Council monitoring officer to hold Councillor Susan Hall fully accountable for the offensive and inexcusable comments made on Twitter.

"Furthermore we would politely and respectfully ask her step down from her respective position as councillor and leader of Conservative [group].

"These comments were made in a public forum and are contrary to the council’s CREATE values introduced in 2008, primarily respect — ‘so we treat each other with courtesy and regard, earning respect through working with others to engender trust.'"

The petition asks for a probe into whether Ms Hall's two Tweets constitute a breach of the councillors' code of conduct.

It says: "We the undersigned staff of the London Borough of Harrow call upon the monitoring officer to take this matter forward in order to avoid Harrow Council and its staff facing any further reputational damage which has the real potential to impact on all staff representing Harrow Council."

Ms Hall said: “UNISON’s leadership have campaigned harder on reinstating the chief executive and going after me over a TV show than they have about issues affecting the wellbeing of their members.

“Labour said six jobs will be lost as a result of the zonal cleaning system they pushed through at cabinet; if I were a UNISON member I’d be disappointed there wasn’t a petition against that instead.”