Worthing: Apology From Worthing Labour Figure After Verbal Attack

Monday, 20 July 2020 17:41

By Karen Dunn, Local Democracy Reporter

Worthing (Photo: Adur and Worthing Councils)

A former Labour candidate has apologised online after launching an expletive-filled attack on Conservative local council members in Worthing.

Sam Theodoridi, who stood for election in Castle ward in 2019 — losing to current mayor Lionel Harman — referred to Tory councillors as ‘odious’, ‘racist’ and ‘sexist’ in a social media post on Friday (July 17).

He then added four-letter insults in the comments.

The post, which followed accusations of misogyny against Tory members, has since been deleted.

In an apology published on Sunday (July 19), Mr Theodoridi said:

“I realise that those comments, especially those in a comment thread on the Facebook post, fell well below what is acceptable in public discourse, and well below the standards that I set myself.

"I recognise that I was wrong to say what I said.

“I confirm that these views are in no way representative of the Worthing Labour councillors or the local Labour parties.

“I would like to take this opportunity to apologise unreservedly for those comments and the hurt and anger that they have caused.

"It won’t happen again.”

Daniel Humphreys, leader of Worthing Borough Council, described the post as an ‘abusive tirade’ and called on Labour leader Rebecca Cooper to confirm that Mr Theodoridi had been dropped as an election candidate.

Mr Theodoridi’s post and the subsequent fall-out, is the latest shot fired in a verbal battle between the Conservatives and Labour, which speaks clearly of the ongoing bad blood between the two parties.

It is arguably the last thing needed as the town looks to its elected representatives for guidance during the Covid-19 crisis.

Despite making their views about each other’s parties clear, both leaders seemed to recognise where their priorities should lay.

Mr Humphreys said:

“It is high time that we all focused on serving our communities.

“Having to spend time replying to the gutter politics being practised by the Labour Party in Worthing is a distraction that we can do without at a time of national crisis.

“The Conservative Party in Worthing will always put people before politics and we will never duck scrutiny.

“I invite the Labour Party to drop these tawdry antics, get their house in order and serve the public as they were elected to do.”

Dr Cooper said:

“At the moment we are only too well aware of the huge problems our residents face as we come out of the Covid-19 lockdown.

“We know people are losing their jobs, families are going hungry, homelessness is on the rise again, businesses face insolvency and the council has to deal with these problems with diminishing financial support from central government.

“We refuse to insult our residents by engaging in name-calling and mud-slinging when there is so much we could and should be doing to help our residents.”