A Burntwood councillor said a video message sent to a rival was a “fun and light-hearted way” to defuse a political discussion.
Cllr Wai-Lee Ho posted the TikTok video of him miming to a song with a love heart filter in front of a picture of Labour’s Cllr Rob Birch.
The video drew criticism from some Labour councillors, with Cllr Darren Ennis branding it “strange”.
But Cllr Ho says he felt the video was a way of trying to prevent political rivals from clashing.
“Rather than fight back and allow things to escalate, I decided to make a video suggesting we should be friends rather than enemies.
“I thought it would be a fun and light-hearted way to defuse things.
“Unfortunately, it would seem that he doesn’t want to be friends, which is a shame because I believe better progress is made when we all get along.”
Cllr Wai-Lee Ho
Cllr Birch had accused his Conservative rival of being unable to respond to a political debate in a mature way after the video was posted.
But Cllr Ho claimed the Labour councillor had been targeting his social media account:
“My comment about ‘living in his head rent free’ derives from him seeming to always want engage with my Twitter account in a negative way, which I view as targeted harassment /trolling – and I’m actually not the first to notice this behaviour of some councillors.
“I think it’s important to note that I don’t even follow him on Twitter so I only know what he tweets or comments when it involves my own account.
“I genuinely think Rob and I would make great friends, definitely someone I would have a pint with, if only he would tolerate that I don’t share his political ideology but I do share his passion and love for our town and district.”
Cllr Wai-Lee Ho
