Manchester estate agents suspends senior staff member over racist tweets aimed at England players

A Manchester based estate agents has announced that they have suspended the member of staff at the centre of a racism scandal.

Savills, based on Booth Street in the city centre, issued a statement after posts were allegedly made by Andrew Bone, their commercial buildings manager, just after 11pm on Sunday following England’s crippling defeat to Italy in the Euros 2020 final.

His vile tweets referred to three England players – Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka, who all missed out on the penalty shootouts – as the ‘N’ word, and another to domestic violence in the wake of their loss.

After social media users alerted the company to their alleged employee’s behaviour, they quickly responded, saying in a statement yesterday morning: “Savills is committed to eliminating discrimination and encouraging diversity amongst our workforce. A full investigation will be carried out in regards to this unacceptable incident.”

In a second statement, the company reiterated: “Savills abhors and has zero tolerance to any form of racism and racial discrimination and is appalled by the racist comments in these tweets. Savills is immediately investigating and will take appropriate action.”

And, at around 3pm yesterday, they announced that Bone had been suspended.

In a third statement, they began by explaining that their employee claimed his phone had been stolen at the time the tweets were made, writing: “Savills confirms that the staff member connected with the racist comments placed on Twitter claims that his account was taken over by a third party and that the matter is being referred to Greater Manchester Police.

“Savills has acted swiftly and confirms that the individual is suspended from duty pending the the findings of the investigation which is being progressed as a priority.

“Savills has a policy of zero tolerance on any forms of racial abuse or discrimination.”