The Green Party have accused Lichfield’s Conservative MP of hiding from scrutiny after he accused them of trolling him on social media.
The newly-formed Greens revealed that the city’s MP Michael Fabricant had blocked their account on Twitter after the party questioned him over employment figures.
Mr Fabricant then wrote: “I appreciate that Lichfield Greens would like high unemployment to force us to toil on the land, but not many others wanted it, did they?
“Please stop trolling me or I’ll just have to block you.”
But the Greens have criticised his accusations and insisted that as the area’s MP he should be answerable on his views.
“It will be clear to anyone looking at our Twitter account that Mr Fabricant’s accusation is entirely unfounded,” a spokesperson said. “Moreover, his misuse of the term ‘trolling’ is offensive to those who have genuinely suffered at the hands of online trolls.
“We are extremely disappointed by Mr Fabricant’s repeated unwillingness to engage in proper debate with us on important issues or have his views submitted to meaningful scrutiny. We are especially disappointed that in blocking us he also attempted to discredit us in the eyes of his followers by falsely associating us with the vile act of online trolling.”
But Mr Fabricant said the Greens complaints were “somewhat childish” and said they needed to recognise that Twitter was not the place to debate “complex questions”.
“I can’t be doing with his constant nagging on Twitter,” he told LichfieldLive. “During the election and now, after the election is all over, the local Green candidate was demanding simplistic answers to complex questions in a 140 character tweet.
“This is clearly nonsense and somewhat childish.”
Despite the stand-off, the Greens insist they are not going to stop seeking answers from the Conservative MP.
Their spokesperson said: “We may no longer be able to view Mr Fabricant’s tweets via our official account, but they are in the public domain and there are other outlets through which we can – and will – continue to question and debunk his proclamations.
“The Lichfield and Burntwood Green Party remains committed to providing vigorous opposition to the Conservative government’s continued and damaging austerity agenda on behalf of the people of this constituency.
“We will not be deterred from exercising our democratic right to hold our MP to account and will continue to do so loudly and vociferously in the coming weeks, months and years.”
But Mr Fabricant said he was prepared to discuss the issues if they were made via appropriate channels.
“I have already said face to face to their candidate Robert Pass – who lost his deposit in the general election – that I am happy to meet him to discuss matters that concern him and he can always write to me like any other constituent.”
