A Tory councillor has been accused of spreading ‘false and defamatory’ fake news after he used a tweet from a parody Twitter account to attack Labour members during a council debate.
Coun Sam Rimmer, who represents Astley Bridge, made a speech last week at Bolton full council during a debate on a Labour motion criticising the introduction of compulsory photo ID for voters in upcoming elections.
He said: “In the face of such warm support from Labour for this motion I thought I might share with them a little tweet that was sent out from Momentum in Bolton.”
The tweet, read: “Tonight we are holding a meeting to plan our campaign against voter ID, a shocking attempt by the Tories to subvert democracy in the UK. “6pm at the Socialist Club – members only – please bring your membership card.
“I would humbly suggest that is such an approach is good enough for their meeting it’s good enough for the ballot box.”
The speech was met with raucous laughter and applause from the Conservative benches with party leader Martyn Cox saying ‘I can’t beat that, I might as well sit down’.
The assertion that the tweet came from Momentum Bolton has been flatly denied by the group who say Coun Rimmer ‘passed off an easily identified, years old, and readily debunked parody from a long suspended Twitter account as a real statement’.
They said the use of the tweet, which he asserted was real ‘betrays his reckless approach to the essential right of poor, working class people to vote’.
Their statement added: “At Wednesday night’s Bolton Council meeting, Coun Rimmer made a false and defamatory statement against Bolton Momentum, using fake news to sell his nasty Tory politics and to attack Bolton Labour.
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“Momentum Bolton have never met at 6pm and never had membership cards.
“We did not make the fake statement wrongly attributed to us.
“We’re sure the whole borough hopes Coun Rimmer pays more diligence to his casework and to his work as an elected member.
“Wednesday’s poor efforts clearly bring the whole council into disrepute.
“We expect him to make an agreed statement of full and frank apology and retraction at the next full meeting of Bolton Council, repeating the same statement on Twitter, a platform he explicitly mentioned in his defamatory fake news council speech.”
The Local Democracy Reporting Service found the tweet read out by Coun Rimmer does not currently exist on the Twitter website.
Screengrabs of the tweet can be found on the site from an account @MomentumBolton, a parody account that no longer exists.
The existing and bona fide Twitter account of the Labour Momentum group in Bolton is @BoltonMomentum and is currently active.
Coun Rimmer, said: “During a recent council meeting I made a humorous comment about a widely circulated comic post on social media.
“I am disappointed that exception has been taken to what was widely received as a humorous comment.”
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