NORTH TYNESIDE CONSERVATIVES BULLYING SCANDAL

  The following letter has been submitted to the Evening Chronicle newspaper by former Tory councillor Alison Austin.

It’s a bit rich of North Tyneside Conservatives to be feigning horror over a two-year-old story of alleged bullying within Labour (which has not been confirmed by the alleged victim, who remains an active member of the Labour party).

I was a member of the local Conservatives for thirty years, many of them as a councillor.  Following a change of leadership in 2020, bullying and misogyny became standard.

It began when two colleagues and I co-signed an email expressing concerns about the truth of an article on the local Conservative Facebook page.  My colleagues, both men, received friendly responses inviting them for a chat.  I was told I was a troublemaker, and an investigation would be launched into my attempts to derail their leadership (something which they have since managed to achieve without any help from me!).

Then a female candidate was replaced with a male when she wanted to run a positive campaign as opposed to the use of fake news and underhand tactics which has become standard within the Tory Group.

I worked hard to support the male candidate for my ward after I decided to stand down from the council, including covering for him when he was out of the country, but when I expressed concern at the content of one of his final leaflets, I received an abusive and misogynistic email telling me my opinion wasn’t important and I should keep out of his campaign.

I was subjected to false accusations of fraud but when I asked for evidence, none was ever produced.  No wrongdoing at all was ever identified, but that hasn’t stopped the local Conservatives from spreading their lies about me, even now.

For the last two years I have been hounded on social media.  One Conservative councillor hides like a coward behind a whole stable of false profiles to attack me with nasty lies and insults.  Two days ago, “someone” cloned my Facebook page and used it to make vile comments attacking the two independent candidates in the elections on May 4th.

Recently the three councillors for St Mary’s ward resigned from Conservative party, saying they had been subjected to bullying, intimidation, and false accusations, just as I was.

All seven of the Conservatives’ target coastal wards on May 4th have male candidates; the local Tories are a Boys’ Club and it is quite clear that they have a problem with women.  Especially strong women, who refuse to be cowed by their bullying and intimidation.