Calling Bell a monster was humour, says ex-spin chief

STORMONT’S former chief spin doctor has claimed that an email he sent a DUP special adviser calling Jonathan Bell “a monster who had to be put to sleep” has been misinterpreted.

David Gordon said it was an “attempt at humour in a private email” and had wrongly been presented by Mr Bell as a briefing against him which was part of a conspiracy.

In his witness statement to the RHI Inquiry, the former press secretary for the Northern Ireland Executive also denied claims by past DUP special adviser Dr Andrew Crawford that he had been involved in media briefing against him.

In his evidence to the inquiry, former Department of Enterprise Trade and Industry Minister Jonathan Bell accused Mr Gordon of describing him as “a monster that had to be put to sleep”.

A former editor of BBC Northern Ireland’s Stephen Nolan Show and before that political editor of the Belfast Telegraph, Mr Gordon left journalism to become Stormont’s chief spin doctor in September 2016.

The £74,000 a year job was controversially created by then DUP First Minister Arlene Foster and Sinn Fein Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness.

After the executive’s collapse, Mr Gordon returned to journalism before taking up a new position as director of communications for the Department of Health last September.

In his witness statement to the RHI Inquiry, he claimed his words were misinterpreted by Mr Bell. He said they were based on an email he sent in December 2016 to DUP special adviser Richard Bullick.

“It contained a Frankenstein metaphor/joke in connection with a possible public statement by former First Minister Peter Robinson, the man who had appointed Mr Bell to ministerial office,” he said. “Having asked if Mr Robinson was going to comment on Mr Bell’s claims, I added: ‘Isn’t it time Frankenstein put the monster he created to sleep?’

“Clearly, an attempt at humour in a private email does not remotely constitute evidence of briefing against Mr Bell, let alone a conspiracy.”

Mr Gordon continued: “Metaphors are not meant to be taken literally. I was not suggesting that Mr Robinson had fathered Mr Bell or created him in a lab.

“Nor was I proposing that the former First Minister or anyone else should actually put him to sleep. Similarly, I was not claiming or briefing that Mr Bell was actually a monster.

“A media briefing along the lines imagined by Mr Bell would frankly have been ridiculous. I cannot imagine a journalist taking any such ‘monster’ suggestion remotely seriously. It would have been met with derision, and rightly so.”

Mr Gordon also responded to claims made at the inquiry by Dr Andrew Crawford that he had been involved in briefing the media against him.

In his evidence to the inquiry earlier this month, the former DUP special adviser claimed Mr Gordon was “very much involved” in media briefing to enable the DUP to blame him for delays in the introduction of cost controls to the RHI scheme.

“If there was a media briefing operation to place blame on Dr Crawford, I had no knowledge of it or involvement in it,” Mr Gordon said. “I did — along with DfE (Department for the Economy) permanent secretary Dr Andrew McCormick — advise DUP officials in late 2016 to pro-actively and publicly address the issue of alleged political input into the delayed RHI cost controls.”

He continued: “I was advocating frank official disclosure, on the grounds that the information entering the public domain by other means could have been very damaging. It would have made no sense to have facilitated such damage through media briefing.”

A series of emails between Mr Gordon and Mr Bullick in December 2016, after Mr Bell’s BBC interview, was last night published on the inquiry website. In them, Mr Gordon said he believed that the BBC had a recording of Dr McCormick telling Mr Bell he believed special advisers in the Office of First Minister and Deputy First Minister, including Timothy Johnston who is now the DUP’s chief executive, had pushed for RHI cost controls to be delayed in 2015.

He stated: “Broadcasting that will be a big boost to Bell irrespective of any facts. ‘Top civil servant backs Bell RHI claim’.”

Mr Gordon suggested Dr McCormick could do a “pre-emptive interview” but added that “is not without risk”.

He also suggested that Mr Johnston or his lawyer could “give the BBC some pause for thought” by sending it a letter.