Barmaid wants an apology
“HE still sees us as pieces of meat” a Winshill barmaid has said after she was bombarded with 2,000 crude and disgusting sex text messages sent by shamed Burton MP Andrew Griffiths.
Imogen Treharne has told the Mirror she wants an apology from the 47-year-old married Tory MP after his vile messages, in which he detailed sex acts and pleaded for explicit images, which were made public at the weekend.
One message from the Burton MP said: “Daddy is going to have to put some manners on you. Teach my little sub**** how to behave”. He also sent: “I can be an evil ******* when I’m turned on”.
He even sent one saying: “How rough do you like it? How hard?”
Mr Griffiths, whose daughter is three-months-old, stood down as Minister for Small Business ahead of the shocking news breaking on Friday. He has since faced calls to resign as Burton’s MP but he has refused.
Imogen said: “He’s resigned as a minister but not as an MP. Why? He’s accepted what he did was wrong, so why is he still clinging on?”
She added: “The only people he hasn’t apologised to is us. Where’s our apology? It just confirms that he still sees us as pieces of meat. He’s just saying sorry to the people affecting his future – not the people he’d actually been affecting.”
The 28-year-old blocked his phone messages on July 6 after two weeks of a frenzied texting spree.
It comes as Michael Fitzpatrick, Labour group leader on East Staffordshire Borough Council, who represents Stapenhill, called for him to stand down as MP, telling the Burton Mail “people like to cling on to power”.
He later spoke to the Mirror and said: “They like to cling on above everything else – especially at a time when the Government are relying on 10 members of the DUP to get their business done.
“Mr Griffiths crossed a line in such a bad way that he has no choice – and the Conservative Association have no choice but to call for his resignation.”
However, local Tory councillor and former Mayor of East Staffordshire David Leese said he did not feel resigning was “appropriate”. He said: “We have to be careful about knee-jerk politics. Give the guy a chance to say what it’s about.
“I want to hear him speak and explain what the hell is going on and what he’s going to do. Because he’s been a good MP. But I’ve found some statements from the texts seem to be at odds with issues he’s stood for.”