A leaked email from Cllr Scott Harris to all Conservative councillors – including the Leader and the Lord Mayor – calls for the Conservatives to ‘play dirty’ against a local resident, a charity, a city council worker and campaign group Sisters Uncut. By Sarah Cheverton.
Today it was brought to the attention of Star and Crescent that Cllr Scott Harris is ‘compiling’ information on individuals, a local charity, and campaign group Sisters Uncut, all of whom have opposed recent budget cuts to Portsmouth City Council services.
Cllr Harris writes ‘I do not want to go down the road of finding ways to smear [a local resident], but maybe we should look at this as a viable option.’
He continues ‘The elections are coming and the politics are dirty. The tricks by the Lib Dems, the lies and the smear are disgusting. Quite frankly it might be a good idea to play dirty this time. I know we shouldn’t go down to their gutter politics but should we continue to stand by and allow this to go on?’
Cllr Harris closes the email by stating ‘I’m also compiling some stuff on…[a local charity] and Sisters Uncut’ and reveals that he has already ‘found some stuff’ on a council employee.
This evening we spoke with Sisters Uncut who provided the following statement: ‘Women are being killed by their partners in Portsmouth, but Councillor Harris clearly does not care. It’s deeply disappointing that his priorities lie with political gameplay, rather than providing support for women fleeing violence.’
Star and Crescent will be following this story closely and will bring you further news as we have it.
Image by Sarah Cheverton and Jackson Davies.
