A councillor has been slammed for “divisive” language used at a cabinet meeting.

At a Worcestershire County Council cabinet meeting on Thursday morning councillor Alan Amos referred to Covid as the “China virus”.

Conservative councillor Amos was speaking at the meeting to voice his delight with the impending budget for highways and travel, for which he is the responsible cabinet member.

When discussing plans for the county bus network, he said: “We have continued to support our local bus companies throughout these dreadful years of the China virus and through our £86 million bid to government to set up an enhanced partnership with the bus companies

“We have planned for a complete transformation of the bus network to make it a real alternative to the car and a form of transport that people want to use, not because they have to do so.”

Labour councillor Richard Udall, who was in attendance, feels this language is unacceptable.

In a tweet he wrote: “Worried about the continuing habit of a certain Tory county councillor to refer to Covid 19 as the “China Virus”.

“This is needlessly divisive and deliberately blaming a whole nation for a problem the whole world is suffering from.

“Blame culture is not needed in a pandemic.”

Councillor Amos has responded to the tweet, claiming his choice of words demonstrates freedom of speech.

He said: "I gave a very upbeat speech today about the tremendous record-breaking Highways and Transport budget for 2021/22.

"I am happy to talk about any of that but I don’t do social media for good reasons. In any case, we still just about have freedom of speech in this country so it’s not altogether surprising that different people choose to describe things differently. It’s called freedom of thought.

"It’s called Scotch because it originally came from Scotland; Dundee Cake originally came from Dundee; Cheddar because it originally came from Cheddar; China virus because it originally came from China.

"Did Cllr Udall have anything to say about the biggest-ever Highways and Transport budget?"

At the cabinet meeting councillor Amos shared how the budget proposes “record levels” of investment.

Among the investments noted by councillor Amos are an additional £12 million investment in highways, an additional £4 million for pavements, and an additional £1 million for drainage and flood alleviation.

There is also an additional £6 million being spent on streetlighting with the aim of replacing all units with more efficient LEDs and to accelerate the replacement of concrete columns.