#stephen mosley

[politicalrosettes]

Blue rosettes are sported as Stephen Mosley (left) campaigns with the help of Iain Duncan Smith and others in Hoole, Chester in 2015.

[maliciouspenguin]

Stephen Mosley MP and Inappropriate Campaigning

This story all begins with the sad passing of Cllr David Robinson on May 13th 2014, Labour Councillor for Boughton, Chester since May 2011.

On May 31st, the day after Cllr Robinson's funeral, @aisfornala posted this: 

A few people on Twitter then queried Mr Mosley, with no response forthcoming. As such, I took it upon myself to be a figurative dog with a bone, and came across this:

Note the date - 4 days after Cllr Robinson's passing. 

Again, many constituents repeatedly questioned Mr Mosley, with the extent of his reply being: 

He then pointed out that on occasions Labour Councillors had joined him. 

@EloquentParrot then tried sending an email to Stephen; as she lives in Flintshire, he declined. So I sent the following email to Stephen:

Stephen, After sharing some tweets on the matter, I feel it more appropriate to contact you via email given it would be several tweets to ascertain all of this. Cllr Robinson was clearly dedicated to his role, serving for quite some time and well respected across wide political circles. So to have, in my view, his now vacant seat somewhat greedily hankered after so soon after his passing seemed very off colour to me, and others as you've no doubt seen on Twitter as you've quite clearly been included in tweets asking for a response. 1 - Why did you, or those in your office find it acceptable to produce such a flagrant piece of Tory promotional literature and distribute it widely one day after Cllr Robinson's funeral? 2 - Why did the Tory group believe it appropriate or necessary to choose a candidate so quickly and promote her so crudely through your letter, including the "challenges" she'd face if elected? 3 - When was your candidate formally nominated? 4 - Why was any kind of literature/letter sent regarding the by election before it'd even been announced? Who made this decision? 5 - You showed your Boughton Street surgery from mid-May. Did you really feel it appropriate to hold such a public display (posing with Kate Vaughan) of Tory promotion given the fact Cllr Robinson had only passed four days prior? I feel your approach on this matter has been insensitive, poorly thought through and a little too politically minded given the circumstances for the by election and I would like to know why, given the fact people are clearly unhappy about it, you've avoided all calls for an apology for what people are clearly deeming insensitive and inappropriate campaigning. I very much look forward to your reply as soon as possible via email. Kind regards, Richard

Prior to receiving a reply, I wasn't surprised to see this tweet:

And I also discovered these were the leaflets being distributed by the Conservative Boughton Candidate:

Bit familiar to the "non-political" street surgery on 17th May?

Today (28th June) I received a reply from Stephen Mosley MP:

How many questions did he fail to answer?