Ukip Troll Smears Stoke Labour Candidate
A Ukip Twitter troll has been accused of libel after tweeting false allegations about Stoke Labour candidate Gareth Snell.
Shropshire ‘businessman’ Malcolm Carter alleged that Mr Snell had bought a council house at a bargain price - and included Gareth’s home address in the tweet, which is still visible on his timeline more than 24 hours later.
The accusation has been fiercely denied by members of the Labour campaign, and roundly condemned on social media.
Fellow Labour councillor and Stoke byelection campaigner, Chris Spence, said:
“He is committing libel. Gareth and his wife (then partner) bought their house in a private sale from an elderly lady whose name I’d rather not expose, as I can't ask her permission”.
“The house was never a Council house, it was always privately owned as far as anyone knows. It was also bought in 2008, six years after the entire council housing stock was transferred to a social housing association called Aspire Housing - so it would be physically impossible for it to have been a Council house when he bought it anyway!”
The ill-informed Mr Carter, who claims to be something of a property expert, has formed a distinct pattern in his unpleasant social media activities.
His account is heavilt peppered with Ukip and other far-right connections – although his profile features a blurry (and in my opinion, Photoshopped) image of himself and Theresa May outside 10 Downing Street.
He styles himself a ‘committed campaigner for the defeat of socialism and Labour at every general election’ and chooses to illustrate this by retweeting the likes of repellent EDL founder Tommy Robinson, far right Europeans Marine Le Pen and Geert Wilders – and of course Donald Trump, he just loves Donald…..
Among the accounts he chooses to follow are international Islamophobic group Bluehand, Ukip sugar daddy Arron Banks, and the erroneously named ‘UK Nationalist’ whose profile sports a photo of the late unlamented Enoch Powell. As I said, a pattern forming – can we see what it is yet?
As to his property expertise, Carter claims to work for ’Premier Properties’ and ‘Bettermove Construction’ but we have been unable to find any mention of his involvement listed at Companies House.
He is, however, listed as a director of 7 other companies, all registered at his home address, a manor farm in leafy Market Drayton. All but one of these companies are dissolved – the remaining one, Shropshire Gas, has been dormant since its incorporation, although its website lists three branches and says the company is currently recruiting.
Possibly Mr Carter is more expert in UK tax law that property…
It is unclear as yet whether Mr Snell – who surely has more important things to do than interact with internet trolls – will be seeking to take legal action against Mr Carter.
The Prole Star has asked for a response to the libel accusations and/or an apology to Mr Snell, but at the time of writing, the voluble Mr Carter has made no reply.