In a chilling crackdown on free speech, two police officers have shown up at a grandmother’s door – her crime? Criticising Labour politicians on Facebook. The Mail has more.
Detectives were last night accused of acting like East Germany’s feared Stasi secret police for quizzing Helen Jones over her calls for the resignation of local councillors embroiled in the WhatsApp scandal exposed by the Mail on Sunday. …
Toby Young, Director of the Free Speech Union, said: “This is typical of the weird authoritarian atmosphere that has grown up in Britain since Sir Keir Starmer took control. Good luck persuading Greater Manchester Police to send two police officers to your house if you’re burgled or your car is stolen.” …
The two plain-clothes officers arrived at Mrs Jones’s home and demanded to talk to her after she commented on the offensive messages shared in a Labour WhatsApp group that the Mail on Sunday exposed this month. Our story led to the sacking of Health minister Andrew Gwynne and the suspension of Burnley MP Oliver Ryan and 11 Labour councillors.
Police knocked on her door in Stockport within 48 hours of receiving a complaint, in contrast to how they have responded to other crime reports. Mrs Jones, a school administrator, said police failed to investigate a spate of car thefts in the surrounding streets last year. …
In the wake of the scandal, Mrs Jones repeatedly posted that Cllr Sedgwick must resign from his Heatons North seat on a closed Facebook group called 4Heatons Hub, and another publicly available page called Reddish Matters.
In one post on 4Heatons Hub, Mrs Jones said of Cllr Sedgwick: “Let’s hope he does the decent thing and resigns. I somehow think his ego won’t allow it.” In another, after posting screenshots from the Trigger Me Timbers group, Mrs Jones wrote: “Not looking good for Cllr Sedgwick!!!” to which another member added: “Cllr Sedgwick, will you be resigning?”
At around 1.30pm last Tuesday, while Mrs Jones was looking after her baby grandson at a nearby house, a detective sergeant and another officer knocked at her door and spoke to her husband Lee, 54, via an intercom.
A shocked Mrs Jones rushed home fearing something tragic had happened to a loved one. At 2.15pm she received a phone call from an officer thought to be the same sergeant who knocked on her door and was told the police had received a complaint about her recent social media posts.
Speaking exclusively to the MoS, she said: “[The officer] said, ‘We’ve had a complaint,’ and I immediately asked, ‘From who?’ and he said, ‘Well, I can’t tell you that.’”
She asked if Cllr Sedgwick or his partner had made the complaint. “[The officer’s] exact words were ‘Your thought process is correct in that,’” said Mrs Jones. “I asked the police officer, have I committed any sort of crime. Why did you call at my door? They said, ‘Someone has spoken to us about your social media posts.’
“I then said, ‘If I don’t take your advice and continue doing what I am doing, will I be committing a crime?’ He said no. I then asked. ‘What will you do about it?’ He said, ‘There’s not a lot we can do, we are just giving you advice.’” …
After six minutes, Mrs Jones hung up, furious that she was made to feel like a criminal in front of her husband and four children. She said: “It was actually quite scary. I’m living my life day to day, law-abiding, and then suddenly I’ve got the police at the door showing a warrant card.”
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