Remarks made by a Havering councillor about race were condemned today by Newham and Havering councils as “offensive and intolerable”.

Cllr Jeffrey Tucker was referred to Havering Council’s standards board after saying black and white council staff couldn’t work together if a merge of the councils’ services goes ahead.

In a joint statement, Sir Robin Wales, Mayor of Newham, and Cllr Michael White, leader of Havering Council, demanded Cllr Tucker make a public apology.

They said: “On behalf of Havering and Newham councils and the people of both boroughs we condemn these offensive, intolerable and wholly unproven remarks.

“Staff of both councils already work well together irrespective of their backgrounds including in our shared services pilot.

“We call on Cllr Tucker to immediately make a full, unequivocal and public apology for the offence he has so clearly caused.”

Cllr Tucker had said the idea of the two councils merging some of their services was a terrible idea because of the ethnic differences between the boroughs.

He said: “We’ve got 95 per cent white English workers in Havering Council and Newham Council is 95 per cent not white English.

“It would be like putting two football teams together, an African team and an English team, and saying, ‘Get on and work together’.”