A United Australia party candidate has deleted a tweet about his family link to former prime minister Joseph Lyons after requests for proof from Lyons’ relatives.
The UAP candidate for Bendigo, Elijah Suares, tweeted earlier this month that “former UAP prime minister, Joseph Lyons, is my great-grandmother’s uncle”, before drawing a parallel between Lyons’ depression-era policies and the current pandemic response.
He has since told Guardian Australia that his connection to Lyons is through a step-relative.
Clive Palmer’s UAP has consistently attempted to assert links to Lyons and the original United Australia party of the 1930s and 1940s, a strategy criticised by surviving family members and dismissed by experts as “ridiculous”.
When contacted for proof of his claim, Suares said he was not “blood related” and that it was his step relative who had the connection to Lyons.
“I am definitely not saying that I am related, but she is. It’s just a very amazing thing that she is in our family and claims to be related.”
Lyons’ great-grandson David Austin said his family had searched a database of more than 11,000 known relatives of Lyons and found nothing confirming Suares’ was a relative.
“I can say considering our exhaustive family tree, there is no record of this candidate,” Austin said, while emphasising he was not acting as a spokesperson for the whole family.
After being alerted to the claim by the Guardian, Austin tweeted Suares asking for proof.
“As a grandson of Joseph Lyons, could you please tell me who your great-grandmother is??”
Suares said he attempted to contact the family after the concerns were raised on Tuesday. His tweet was subsequently deleted.
Suares said he had no reason to doubt what he had been told about him about his family’s relation to Lyons.
But he told the Guardian he deleted the tweet because he did not want to put Lyon’s family in a difficult position, similar to that they faced in 2019, when other UAP candidates claimed relation to Lyons.
“Knowing what they’ve been through in 2019 is basically what I would not want to happen to them,” He said would happily work with them to understand where this fits into their family tree.
He said he understood why the family had questions about his claim.
“I’m happy that they questioned it because obviously it’s something I was unknown about until two weeks ago, when I posted it.”
The UAP’s website continues to use Lyons’ picture and biography on its website, under a page titled: “Our history – United Australia party prime ministers.”
Former prime ministers Robert Menzies and William Hughes are also included on the page. None of the trio have any link to the modern iteration of the UAP, registered in 2018, and the Australian Electoral Commission had told the ABC that there is no continuity of registration between the 1930s UAP and the current party.
The UAP did not respond to requests for comment.
A similar strategy was adopted during the 2019 campaign, frustrating surviving members of the Lyons family.
Lyons’ great-granddaughter Wendy Lacey told SBS News in 2019 that the family were “appalled” by the party’s strategy, saying there was no connection between the original UAP, considered the precursor to the modern Liberal party, and the new party.
The UAP is embarking on a huge ad spend, estimated to have cost $31m so far across print, digital, radio and social media.
Some of those ads have spruiked a connection to Lyons.
