Conservative MP for Stroud Siobhan Baillie makes a statement about the Blackboy Clock and the consultancy surrounding it to the Stroud News & Journal. In line with the government’s ‘retain and explain’ guidance, she says that removing the clock ‘will not end the scourge of racism’ and warns its ‘disappearance from our community into a museum’ could be ‘counterproductive in the longer term’, whilst complaining that those offended by it are a ‘loud minority’ with an ‘unquenchable desire to be outraged’.

Her statement is quoted in a wider article featuring the viewpoints of other local residents, but Baillie complains to the newspaper that her words were taken out of context to ‘[manipulate] public perception’. The paper later publishes her statement in full online. On her own channels, Baillie thanks ‘the sensible and often unheard majority in our town’ who support her views.