Hayle

Cornwall Tory candidate George Eustice accused of lying while canvassing for General Election

20 hours ago George Eustice, who has been the MP for Camborne, Redruth and Hayle, has been accused of lying about one of his constituents on his Facebook campaign page. Independent media website The Canary has...

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Cornwall Tory candidate George Eustice accused of lying while canvassing for General Election

Video shows clash with postal worker

George Eustice, MP for Camborne and Redruth

One of Cornwall’s Conservative candidates has been accused of lying while canvassing for the General Election.

George Eustice, who has been the MP for Camborne, Redruth and Hayle, has been accused of lying about one of his constituents on his Facebook campaign page.

Independent media website The Canary has reported that Mr Eustice posted that a “Corbyn activist” followed him while in Redruth “in his pyjamas shouting in a hectoring manner and filming on his mobile in the way Momentum train them to behave”.

However, a video posted on Twitter shows Mr Eustice approaching the man’s property which has a visible police notice that says “no cold callers”.

The man asks Mr Eustice a series of questions but is not heard to shout at any time.

Mr Eustice has been canvassing in his constituency in recent days as he seeks re-election. He’s also agriculture minister at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).

After a day canvassing in the West Tolgus area of Redruth, Mr Eustice wrote on his Facebook campaign page: “Towards the end of the day we came across a Corbyn activist who followed us into the road in his pyjamas shouting in a hectoring manner and filming on his mobile in the way Momentum train them to behave.

"It was most bizarre, but this is the sort of behaviour that has caused so many decent Labour Party members to quit their party.”

Following his comments Sheffield Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC) shared a video on Twitter of the incident.

As reported on The Canary, the man in question speaks calmly saying Eustice has done “pretty much nothing” for this constituency and points out that he has a ‘no cold callers’ sign clearly visible in his window. When Mr Eustice walks away, the man – videoing on his phone – follows.

He can be heard saying to Mr Eustice: “I’m a postman, my wife’s a nurse, why am I going to vote for you; a Tory? You’ve done nothing for this area – absolutely nothing. What do you think about us postal workers? You’ve disturbed me on my day off, I’m a working man.”

The man says many people in the area intend to vote for the Labour candidate Paul Farmer.

Eustice tells the man to “go back to sleep”.

A source told The Canary that the man in question is not a “Momentum member let alone having been ‘trained’ by them”.

According to DPAC Sheffield, the postal worker only shared his video after seeing what Eustice wrote about him.

The organisation wrote on Twitter: “It is understood the postal worker only released the video footage onto social media after seeing that George Eustice had put that pack of lies about him on Facebook. Talk about an own goal George! That's Tories for you.”

The Canary reports that someone called Steve Lane commented on Facebook saying they’d “watched this incident from their window”. Lane called him a “crazy superman onesie wearing fellow”, which backed up Mr Eustice’s version of events.

According to The Canary, DPAC Sheffield investigated this claim and alleged that no one called Steve Lane lives in this road. The Canary states that the Steve Lane who posted the comment is married to Liz Lane, who appears to be shown canvassing with Mr Eustice that day.

Mr Eustice’s comment on Facebook appears to have backfired somewhat with several people taking him to task for his use of language.

Helen Coad replied: “Ridiculously childish on your part. I strongly suggest you grow up and stop running to social media to ‘cry’ when people don't agree with you.”

Rob Butland said: “A postman on his day off whose wife is a nurse. Real people in real employment talking real issues. Those pesky activists.”

James Damer Ford added: “You don’t do yourself or the party favours when you label and box people. Just because someone is over zealous and anti Con doesn’t make them ‘Momentum trained’.”

Cornwall Live has contacted Mr Eustice and his agent Andrew Smyth for comment, but as of publication has yet to have received replies.

via https://www.cornwalllive.com/news/cornwall-news/cornwall-tory-mp-george-...