Tory councillor apologises for campaigner’s email
‘OUTRAGEOUS’ EMAIL TO CONSTITUENT CAME FROM ‘BABY CHIMP’ TWEETER
CONSERVATIVE councillor Lewis Bartoli has apologised after a campaigner sent an “outrageous” email to a constituent.
Caitlin Ivory, from Tynemouth, emailed North Tyneside Conservative Party asking them to stop sending her campaign material.
But she was “taken aback” by the reply she received from Stephen Lowrey, who acts as agent for ward councillor Lewis Bartoli and candidate Chris Johnston.
The 24-year-old took to Twitter to condemn the “outrageous” reply.
His email said: “You can take the correspondence perhaps as evidence that Coun Bartoli takes a true interest in the opinions of his constituents and as you admit to not ever receiving similar correspondence from Labour or Lib Dems, it is safe to assume that that they could not care less.
“I can assure you that Coun Bartoli could never be as deceptive as the antiSemites in the Labour Party.
“Do not contact our office again.” Ms Ivory said: “I have had campaign materials in the past from this particular councillor [Lewis Bartoli].
“They were always directly addressed to me which was odd. I thought ‘I’m not a member of his party, why is he sending me this?’
“I looked it up and it’s legal. Last week I had one of those surveys about the area, which was really thinly veiled campaign material for him and Conservative candidate Chris Johnston.
“I’m a Labour member, always vote Labour, and I’m not interested in Conservative stuff.
“I sent an email to the address on the leaflet asking them to stop sending me stuff.
“I received an email back from Stephen Lowrey and it was really unprofessional.”
Ms Ivory added: “Having political differences is one thing, but I am one of Coun Bartoli’s constituents.
“Coun Bartoli tweeted me apologising for the experience. I’m not bothered about removing my name from the list.
“Why is this guy allowed to work for them? When I first received the response I thought ‘why are you doing this?’ I was taken aback.”
This isn’t the first time Mr Lowrey has courted controversy. In 2016 he caused outrage after sharing a tweet in which he appeared to compare elderly women in Benton and Forest Hall to a baby chimp.
Coun Bartoli apologised to Ms Ivory for the email and said it is currently being dealt with by the Conservative Federation.
He added: “I have apologised to Caitlin for the email.
“She sent an email accusing me of being deceptive and he [Lowrey] responded in a similar manner.
“He shouldn’t have done it and I have apologised because it wasn’t acceptable, we have to hold up our hands up to it, we were wrong.
“If you cannot admit when you are wrong you cannot expect others to do the same. He was entirely wrong in that regard and we apologise. It is going through the Conservative Federation at the moment.
“I have written to Caitlin and have made sure her details have been removed.”