Burntwood Labour councillors call on Lichfield MP to apologise for “appalling” social media comments made to teenager

Labour councillors in Burntwood have called for the area’s MP to apologise for calling a local teenager “a complete twat” on social media.

Conservative MP Michael Fabricant made his comments to Darcy May, who had suggested he had neglected Burntwood.

The 19-year-old said she had been “shocked and disappointed” by the Lichfield MP.

Now Labour councillors in Burntwood have urged Mr Fabricant to make an apology.

Cllr Sue Woodward, who leads her party’s group on Lichfield District Council, said: “This is just appalling behaviour – the arrogance of the man!

“This young woman has an interest in politics and is entitled to an opinion. She didn’t mention elections in Burntwood and should not then have the MP pile in and encourage his followers to do the same in order to belittle her.

“This has shocked Darcy and her family, but I applaud them for standing up to this bullying.

“So much for wanting young people to engage with politics.”

Cllr Darren Ennis, who sits on Burntwood Town Council, also criticised the Conservative MP and urged him to “man up” and apologise.

“This response doesn’t justify what he tweeted,” Cllr Ennis said. “Irrelevant of if she lives in Burntwood or Russia, we would want either no response or a professional response from our MP.

“Mr Fabricant is in the public eye, he is our representative and his responses influences the opinions of people. Darcy hasn’t just been disgustingly insulted but this has led to other short minded people to attack her also.

“Some quotes for Mr Fabricant – ‘lead by example to encourage and foster respect and tolerance’ and  ‘treat others in a professional and straightforward manner’. These are from his own party’s code of conduct. Where was your tolerance? Where is your professionalism?

“Even when finding out she is one of his constituents, he will not accept his response was rash and unprofessional, and give an apology.

“Man up, you are wrong.”

Mr Fabricant said his response came after Darcy had been “rude” to him.

“Darcy is one of over a million people who interact with me each month on Twitter one way or another,” he said. “Often, especially at election time, Momentum trolls from Glasgow and elsewhere purport to comment on events in Lichfield and Burntwood while knowing nothing about the area and having no connection with the area either.

“Darcy made no attempt to explain on her Twitter profile or in her message what age she is, or that she actually lives anywhere near Burntwood.

“Instead she chose to reply to a post of mine which said that Labour had had disappointing election results with her rude response: ‘Not as disappointing as Burntwood since you neglected it. WEAK AND WOBBLY’. No indication of anything else. For all I know she is a Russian troll in St Petersburg – there are plenty of those.

“I do not neglect Burntwood nor were there any elections in Burntwood so her tweet was not only unpleasant, but inaccurate too.

“Twitter is not like Facebook. It is not for those who are easily offended – unless they deliberately choose to be offended for political gain. ‘Snowflakes’ they are called. Labour activists love playing that game.

“Having said that, if Darcy really is a constituent and makes contact with me in the proper way through my Parliamentary website or by letter, I would be more than happy to meet her and talk about politics – though the running of Burntwood is of course a local government matter. I do that all the time.”