Mayor of Swindon resigns over 'mongol sex' remark
The mayor of Swindon has resigned after coming under attack for referring to disabled people as "mongols".
Conservative councillor Nick Martin was reprimanded last week after Labour councillors at a training meeting reported him saying: "Are we still letting mongols have sex with each other?"
The mayor made a public apology on BBC Wiltshire on Friday, but today he said it was "best for the people of Swindon" that he stand down from the prestigious post.
"Following the accusations against me, I have accepted the findings, I have made new apologies. However, it is clear that this will not stop the attacks on the Office and person of Mayor," Martin wrote in a letter to a Swindon Borough Council director.
The councillor, who was criticised by disability charity Scope over the remarks, previously explained that he made the comments in at attempt to learn more about the sex lives of people with Down's syndrome.
"I was trying to understand whether we assist those people to procreate. I happened to use an old-fashioned word. I'm over 60 and I made a mistake," Martin told ITV News yesterday.