Official complaint over abusive tweet sent by Labour councillor to Tory MP
An official complaint has been lodged with Wolverhampton Council over a derogatory tweet allegedly sent to an MP by a city councillor.
Wolverhampton North East MP Jane Stevenson was told to "f*** off b****" in a tweet sent from the account of Bushbury South and Low Hill Councillor Paul Sweet.
Simon Bennett, a councillor for Merry Hill, has lodged a complaint with the local authority against Councillor Sweet for publishing "an obscene tweet to an elected official on social media".
Councillor Bennett - who shared a screenshot of the tweet which has now been deleted - has also made a formal complaint against the council's leader, Ian Brookfield, over the matter.
After the incident, Councillor Brookfield shared a screenshot of an offensive tweet allegedly sent by Councillor Bennett, which councillor Bennett believes was "clearly photo-shopped or created on a tweet generator by a troll account".
Councillor Sweet has not accepted any responsibility or apologised publicly over his alleged tweet.
However, hours after the offensive tweet was sent from his account, Councillor Sweet tweeted to say: "The perils of twitter. Too quick on the keypad sometimes."
Councillor Brookfield told both Councillors Sweet and Bennett to "was their mouths out with soap".
This response baffled Councillor Bennett, as he says the screenshot was "allegedly sent from my account, strangely not long after I tweeted the screenshots of Paul Sweet".
He continued: "I don't think it's behaviour becoming of the council leader [to share the tweet allegedly from him].
"I'm deeply concerned that he has not apologised [over the matter]. I have made a complaint against Councillor Brookfield for sharing offensive and obscene tweets that are defamatory which could potentially damage my reputation."
Labour Party councillors Sweet and Brookfield were approached for comment.
Referring to the lack of comment over Councillor Sweet's alleged tweet, Wendy Thompson, the leader of the Wolverhampton Conservative Group, said: "It is a type of bullying. I think that is what is appalling.
"Using that kind of language without an apology appears that they are not bothered.
"We want to encourage decent people to politics but this kind of abuse puts people off."
