Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
The Schmooze

What Not to Wear: Senior Tory Suspended by Conservative Party for Dressing as Hitler

Harrogate Council leader Coun Mike Gardner has made a fashion faux pas and there are photos to prove it. The Yorkshire Evening Post ran the incriminating photograph of Gardner dressed up as Hitler, giving the Nazi salute.

The photo, which Gardner claims was released by political rivals, has forced him to be removed from his local Conservative association. This means, come spring, he won’t be able to contest his Pannal (a village in the Harrogate district of North Yorkshire, England) seat for the party. Gardner’s membership to the association will remain suspended pending an investigation. A spokesman for the national Conservative Party said, “It’s the only course of action available.”

What would prompt someone to dress up as Hitler? Gardner had been to a costume party where guests had been asked to dress up as someone from the era in which they were born. Gardner is quoted in the Knaresborough Post saying it was only “a piece of fun.”

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.