Following the
shocking email I received from my MP Lucy Allan on Thursday evening which I
reported on my blog on Friday here I thought it would be useful for
everyone to see the full exchange of emails between myself and Lucy Allan, so that
you can decide yourself why Lucy Allan has reacted so extremely by referring to
my behaviour as ‘stalking’ and asking me not to contact her offices again. Many
of these emails I have published before but never as a full thread in chronological
order.
Just to set
the scene I want to recap on a few important points - or to use Lucy Allan’s own phrase ‘let’s get
some facts out there’.
Lucy Allan
herself encourages her constituents to contact her by email and to telephone to
arrange surgery appointments. Her website sets this out here and she has
confirmed this via her facebook and twitter accounts.
I have
never telephoned either of the offices of Lucy Allan but I was going to
telephone her office to arrange a surgery appointment after tomorrow if she had
still not replied to my email of 4th January 2016 by then. The suggestion
of telephoning for a surgery appointment came from the Telford & Wrekin
Conservatives themselves on Thursday after I explained to them that I have been
contacting Lucy Allan by email but I have not been getting straight answers.
Lucy Allan
continues to be very proud of her Contract between herself and the People of
Telford which you can see here . She
is clearly failing badly in respect of No IV. ‘Be accessible to everyone’ because she has blocked many Telford
residents from making comments on her facebook page and now she is refusing to
respond to my own genuine question by telling me to stop contacting her offices.
I also know from comments that have been made to me that I am not the only
Telford resident whose emails have gone unanswered.
Lucy Allan as
an MP is expected to follow the House of Commons Code of Conduct. This
includes the general principles of Accountability and Openness as set out in
Paragraph 8. These state the following:
‘ Accountability
Holders of public
office are accountable for their decisions and actions to the public and must
submit themselves to whatever scrutiny is appropriate to their office.
Openness
Holders of public
office should be as open as possible about all the decisions and actions that
they take. They should give reasons for their decisions and restrict
information only when the wider public interest clearly demands.’
The
Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards unfortunately cannot investigate alleged
breaches of Paragraph 8 as she only investigates alleged breaches of Paragraphs
10-16 of the Code of Conduct. Even though
I made an official complaint about Lucy Allan to the Commissioner based on an
alleged breach of Paragraph 16 I knew that it stood little chance of success
because you have to demonstrate that the conduct ‘would cause significant
damage to the reputation and integrity of the House of Commons as a whole, or
its Members generally’ (ie. not just to the individual MP you are complaining about). Indeed the Commissioner confirmed to me last week that she
was not going to investigate my complaint but made it clear it is because of the
strict tests set out in Paragraph 16 of the Code.
Very few
complaints are actually investigated by the Commissioner. The statistics on
this can be seen here and the number of complaints currently under
inquiry can be seen here. I agree
with the widespread calls for an overhaul of the Parliamentary watchdog and I
can recommend a read of this article from the Guardian from last month .Understandably
Lucy Allan gets a mention !
Before moving
on to my exchange of emails with Lucy Allan I would like to stress that I am
one of many people asking the same question which is why she will not publish
the email which she says contains the words ‘Unless you die’. This question was
being asked by many others on 11th December 2015 on Lucy Allan’s
facebook page of various political allegiances. Lucy Allan’s reaction to those
comments was to delete over 500 comments and then block many facebook users,
including myself and many other Telford residents, from making comments on her
facebook page in future.
Until recently there were still many negative comments about Ms Allan’s non-publication of the ‘Unless
you die’ email on her facebook page which were dated 14th December
2015 and they were shown under her re-posted statement about the mis-representation of her constituent’s
email.
I have noticed for the first time this morning that Lucy Allan has
deleted all those comments together with the statement from her facebook page.
Her
statement is still shown on her website and this is the same as the one that
was posted on her facebook page except that the latter included the extra
sentence ‘I did not claim that either anonymous
message was a threat of any kind’.
Last week another
Telford constituent emailed Lucy Allan and asked her why she would not publish
the ‘Unless you die’ email. Lucy Allan replied very quickly but did not answer
the question. Instead Lucy Allan blamed the constituent whose email she had added
the words ‘Unless you die’ to and Lucy Allan also blamed the media for
reporting the story.
I am grateful to
Ian Denny who is not from Telford but, like so many of us, just wants Lucy Allan
to be open and accountable. Ian has been previously successfully in exchanging
emails with Lucy Allan and his latest message to Lucy Allan from yesterday can
be seen here.
Why is it so important to know the answer
to the question of why Lucy Allan will not publish the ‘Unless you die’ email ?
It is an obvious
answer. It is important to know that our MPs are being open and accountable in
line with the House of Commons Codes of Conduct. Without this, there is no
trust and I am afraid that I now have no trust whatsoever in Lucy Allan after
the way she has conducted herself on this matter and how she has reacted to me
by ultimately stopping me from asking her a question she clearly does not wish
to answer.
The unpublished
email would appear to be the only evidence that would support Lucy Allan’s
account that the words ‘Unless you die’ came from a separate anonymous email
received on 27th November 2015.
All she has to do is publish the email
which she has already stated is anonymous and does not constitute a threat, or
even an extract of that email so that we can understand the context in which
the words ‘Unless you die’ were written. How hard is that? It’s not as if we
are asking her to do anything difficult like a spacewalk.
She says the unseen email (or maybe
emails plural if you look at her reply to me of 24th December 2015)
is amongst those held by the police. However that would not stop her from
publishing it. After all she was very quick to release the tape of the telephone
threat she received even though that was handed to the police and of course she
released the email (albeit misquoted by Ms Allan) from Adam Watling and so what
stops her from publishing the anonymous non-threatening email with the words ‘Unless
you die’ if it really does exist ?
My exchange of emails with Lucy Allan
My first
email was prompted by my comment on Lucy Allan’s facebook page being deleted along
with hundreds of other comments on 11th December 2015.
Here is a
chronological summary of my email exchange with Lucy Allan and her office, then
I show the wording of the emails (except for the Automatic email-acknowledgements).
Please note that in fairness to the
assistant, I have left her name blank.
1. 12th December 2015 My
email to Lucy Allan headed ‘An urgent question from a Telford constituent’
2. 12th December 2015 Automatic
reply from Lucy Allan’s office acknowledging receipt of my email
3. 14th December 2015 Email
acknowledgment from Lucy Allan’s assistant.
4. 18th December 2015 My
reply to Lucy Allan’s assistant thanking her for her email
5. 22nd December 2015 Reply
from Lucy Allan which did not answer my question but just referred me to the
statement on her website I had already seen
6. 22nd December 2015 My reply
to Lucy Allan as she had not answered my
question
7. 24th December 2015 My reminder
to Lucy Allan as I could see that she was back working on social media but had
still not answered my original question of 12th December 2015. I
headed this email ‘URGENT – your failure to reply to my email’ and copied in
the Assistant as well.
8. 24th December 2015 Automatic
reply from Lucy Allan’s assistant saying that the office is now closed until 4th
February 2016
9. 24th December 2015 Reply
from Lucy Allan
10. 4th January 2016 My email
to Lucy Allan as I was confused by her reply as it conflicted with her previous
statements
11. 4th January 2016 Automatic
reply from Lucy Allan’s office acknowledging receipt of my email
12. 14th January 2016 My
email to Lucy Allan thanking for acknowledgement and requesting a reply by 18th
January 2016, copied to Assistant
13. 14th January 2016 Lucy Allan’s
shocking response headed ‘Contacting my office’
My email to Lucy Allan of 12 December 2015
'Hello Lucy,
I am one of your
constituents and I supported you at the election in May.
I hope therefore
you will be good enough to respond to me.
I believe that much
of the criticism you are receiving can be addressed if you publish the email
you received in which you say someone stated 'Unless you die''. If for some
reason you cannot publish it you should explain why. You have released the
phone call of the verbal threat and so I do not understand why you cannot
release the email with the words 'Unless you die'. Until you do so I am afraid
that many people will just not understand where these words came from and will
believe that you simply made them up.
You were, of course
wrong to attribute these words to Adam Watling (Rusty) and that is something I
have never seen before in my life.
You have put
Telford in the national media (Telegraph,Independent,Daily Mail,Spectator,BBC
to name but a few) for the wrong reasons and I believe that unless you now give
us the full picture with the explanation of the second email that you must now
step down.
Yours sincerely
Neil Phillips'
Email from Lucy Allan’s assistant of 14 December 2015
'Dear Neil
Thank you for emailing Lucy.
The contents of your email have
been noted and Lucy aims to respond to all constituents in 5-10 working days.
Best wishes
XXXXXX'
My reply to Lucy Allan’s assistant of 18 December 2015
'Dear XXXXXX,
Thank you for your email.
I look forward to
receiving Lucy's reply shortly and within the timescale you have given to me.
Regards
Neil Phillips '
Reply from Lucy Allan of 22 December 2015
'Dear Neil
Thank you for
emailing me.
Regarding your
concern, I have released a statement on this which is as the following:
“There
has been confusion and misreporting surrounding recent social media exchanges
involving me. Some headlines and stories have claimed that I invented fake
death threats and that I admitted to doing so.
This
is emphatically not the case and not something, which I have ever done, or
would ever do. The facts are that West Mercia Police are currently
investigating a death threat made by telephone to my Telford office. The
anonymous male voice message, which was reported to police by a member of my
staff, stated:
"Hi
Lucy Allan I just want to let you know that soon someone is going to f**king
kill you, you f**king b*tch. Hope you die."
At
the same time, the Metropolitan Police are investigating a cyber harassment
campaign, which has made it difficult for my office staff and me to carry out
our roles and duties in Parliament and in Telford.
Regrettably,
this level of abuse – often anonymous – has become a fact of political life. I
do not believe it is something, which most people would consider to be a proper
part of a functioning democracy. Nor do I believe that it is a level of vitriol
and frequency of threat with which the vast majority of British people would
expect their elected representatives to have to cope on a daily basis.
Sadly,
vicious cyber bullying seems to have become the stock-in-trade of certain
elements of political parties and some campaigners apparently acting on their
behalf. I believe it needs to be stopped. If it is not then there is a real
risk that it will drive out of politics many well-intentioned people from all
parties. This in turn will inevitably, and perhaps irretrievably, damage
voters’ choices in our system of elective democracy. Cyber bullying harms our
democracy and we should not stand for it.
I
want to make it clear that I do not know who made the death threat on my office
answer phone. I am unable to make any connection between it and some of those
who regularly direct varying levels of abuse at me on Twitter and Facebook.
Equally,
I have acknowledged that a recent Facebook posting made by me drew upon two
separate anonymous communications sent to me online. In conflating elements of
these two communications, I created a misleading impression, for which I have
apologised. In the climate of intimidation created by the sort of cyber abuse
to which MPs of all parties are now commonly subjected, on a daily basis, I
believe that this error was understandable.
However,
it emphatically does not amount to my having invented fake death threats or of
ever having admitted to doing so. To claim that I did is wholly false. In
reporting what I can only believe was a genuine death threat plus an
unacceptable level of social media harassment to the police, I believe I have
acted responsibly and within my duties as an MP and my rights as a citizen.”
Although this has
been a distraction I will be focusing my attention on what I was elected to do
and that is to serve the people of Telford. If you have any other concerns
which are not media related then please do not hesitate to contact me.
Thank you
again for contacting me and Merry Christmas.
Best wishes
Lucy'
My reply to Lucy Allan of 22 December 2015
'Dear Lucy,
Thank you for your reply.
I have seen your
statement thanks.
Unfortunately you have
not answered my question which is why you have not published the email which
contains the words 'Unless you die'.
Please answer this
question rather than avoiding it. If you do not answer it then the only
conclusion that I and many other people will draw is that this email does not
actually exist.
Regards
Neil Phillips'
My reminder to Lucy Allan of 24 December
2015 as she was back working on social media but had still not answered my
question of 12 December 2015
'Dear Lucy,
I note that you have failed to respond to my email of 22nd
December 2015 after not giving me a straight answer to my email of 12th
December 2015.
I note that you have
still failed to publish the email in which you state that the words 'Unless you
die' appear.
You are causing many
people to be seriously concerned because we cannot understand why you do not
publish the email and the only conclusion you are leading us to draw is that
the email does not actually exist.
Will you please reply to
my email today explaining why you are not publishing the email.
If I do not hear from you
by the end of today this matter will have to be taken further because you are
clearly failing in your duty to respond to a fair question from one of your
constituents on a matter which is extremely serious which you appear to be taking
very lightly.
Yours sincerely
Neil Phillips '
Reply from Lucy Allan of 24 December 2015
'Dear Mr Phillips
I refer to your email.
You have had prompt responses to all your previous communications. Please note the police have a file containing various online malicious communications, which include communications containing the words to which you refer.
For the record it was the son of a Labour Councillor, who falsely claimed I had faked a death threat. This was a bizarre and twisted claim. The reality was, I re posted words on my Facebook page that were sent to me by someone using a false name. I did not suggest at any point those words amounted to a death threat. I did not 'make up' the words used. MPs routinely receive this kind of material including me.
I refer to your email.
You have had prompt responses to all your previous communications. Please note the police have a file containing various online malicious communications, which include communications containing the words to which you refer.
For the record it was the son of a Labour Councillor, who falsely claimed I had faked a death threat. This was a bizarre and twisted claim. The reality was, I re posted words on my Facebook page that were sent to me by someone using a false name. I did not suggest at any point those words amounted to a death threat. I did not 'make up' the words used. MPs routinely receive this kind of material including me.
I do accept I should not
be engaging with these online anonymous trolls and that it was ill judged to
try to expose them in the way that I did. For that reason I removed the post
within hours.
There office is now
closed and there will be no further communication on this matter until
January.
I wish you well.
Yours sincerely
Lucy Allan MP'
My email to Lucy Allan of 4 January 2016
'Dear Ms Allan,
Thank you for your email
of 24th December 2015.
I appreciated you
replying to me on Christmas Eve, especially as I had received an earlier Out of
Office email from your assistant saying that your Office would not be back open
until today.
I just wanted to let you
know that I am afraid that I was puzzled after receiving your email. Rather
than bringing me clarity on the subject of my email to you I am afraid that
your reply left me more confused because of the following two points:
1. Your reply of 'Please
note the police have a file containing various online malicious communications,
which include communications containing the words to which you refer.' seems
inconsistent with your previous statements in which you have stated that there
is only one anonymous email which contains the words 'Unless you die'.
To correct this
inconsistency will you please confirm whether you meant to tell me that the
words 'Unless you die' actually appear in one single email or whether you did
mean to use the word 'communications' plural which would be at odds with your
previous statements ?
2. I understand that the
Metropolitan Police have a file containing various online malicious
communications but can you please tell me why have you not published the
anonymous email of 27th November 2015 which contains the words 'Unless you die'
? Is it because the Police have advised you not to publish it or it is because
you have chosen not to publish it ?
An early reply would be
very much appreciated.
I wish you well for the
New Year of 2016.
Yours sincerely
Neil Phillips '
My email to Lucy Allan of 14 January
2016
'Dear Ms Allan,
Thank you for your
acknowledgement of my email of 4th January 2016.
I look forward to
receiving a response by Monday 18th January 2016 which I believe fits in with
your 10 working days target response time.
Yours sincerely
Neil Phillips '
Lucy Allan’s response of 14 January 2016
'Dear
Mr Phillips
I am
writing to ask that you do not continue to contact my office.
My
staff in both London and Telford have expressed concerns about your conduct.
They have felt unsettled by your behaviour over a considerable period. It is
appearing obsessive in both its frequency, nature and tone. It has been
described as 'stalking.'
I
have a responsibility to my staff to ensure their wellbeing at work. There is
no requirement for them to accept repeatedly unreasonable conduct from
residents on such a regular basis. Whilst they are experienced and very
professional in dealing with unhappy and angry residents, with empathy and
consideration, your behaviour has gone well beyond that. It is
unacceptable.
You
are the first Telford resident whom I have had to ask not to contact my office.
I have 75,000 constituents to whom I seek to provide a quality service. Your
conduct is preventing those with genuine needs and concerns from receiving help
and support from their MP.
Any
further contact will be considered to be harassment.
Yours
sincerely
Lucy
Allan'
That's the end of the email exchange. All I was trying to do was to get a straight answer to a simple question which I asked over a month ago.
Neil Phillips
17th January 2016
