Havant councillor slams false claims he was involved in Reform conference scrap amid hate campaign

The former deputy crime commissioner of Hampshire has hit out after being subjected to a hate campaign after he was incorrectly identified as being involved in a fight with protesters at the Reform party conference.

Havant and Hampshire County Council councillor Terry Norton was embroiled in claims he was part of an ugly melee at the conference last Friday after being the victim in a case of mistaken identity.

Protesters stormed the Birmingham conference and interrupted leader Nigel Farage’s speech before reportedly being punched by members in the crowd, with one person hit with a crutch and a woman having hair pulled out.

A picture that subsequently circulated online showed a woman being attacked with the man next to her falsely identified as Cllr Norton, who stepped down as crime commissioner Donna Jones’ assistant last year.

“Angry” Worcester councillor Ed Kimberley spread the misinformation that Cllr Norton was involved in the ruck by posting a picture of the incident while criticising the councillor - sparking scores of angry and abusive comments.

But he has now offered a “correction and apology” on Facebook and called on people to avoid sending “abusive messages or comments or threats” when posts such as the one he made are published. Somewhat ironically, he also said it is “important that we do not point the finger of blame at the wrong person”.

However, Cllr Norton has revealed he has since been targeted in an online hate campaign following Cllr Kimberley’s post and subsequent online threats by others.

Cllr Norton told The News: “I attended the Reform UK conference, but the individual shown in the images is not me. I had absolutely no involvement in that incident.

“What is concerning is what happened afterwards. Images and posts began circulating on social media falsely identifying me as the individual involved, accompanied by serious allegations, attempts to attack my character, my public profile and even my employment.

“What is concerning is what happened afterwards. Images and posts began circulating on social media falsely identifying me as an individual involved, accompanied in some cases by serious allegations and attempts.

“One of the original posters Cllr Ed Kimberly from Worcester has now acknowledged that this was a case of mistaken identity, removed their post, apologised to me and corrected the record.

“However, various other falsely created posts and accusations remain online and continue to be circulated, despite the original identification having been shown to be wrong. I have addressed this on my social media and included images of the apology.”

He added: “As a public figure, I take the publication of false allegations of this nature extremely seriously. There is a wider issue here about how quickly an entirely false identification can spread online and the intention of reputational damage before facts have even been established.

“I am considering what further action may be appropriate in relation to material that remains online. For the avoidance of any doubt, I was not the individual involved in removing the protester - I assume it was an employee from an external security company - and played no part whatsoever in that incident.”

Cllr Kimberley, who has since taken down his original post, has now issued an apology on his Facebook page. He wrote: “This post is to make a correction, and an apology. Yesterday I shared a post identifying the person on the right of this photo as Terry Norton, a councillor and former Deputy Police & Crime Commissioner in Havant for Reform UK.

“While the photo is real - and while the resemblance is indeed striking, Terry is not in fact the person shown in this photo.

“We are all very angry about what happened at Reform UK conference last week, but it is important that we do not point the finger of blame at the wrong person or the wrong people. Facts are sacred. We cannot have an honest debate without them.”

He added: “Before we close: I would also like to ask that when someone is featured in a post like this, that people do not take this as a prompt to go and send them abusive messages or comments or threats.

“I have personally had far too much of such behaviour myself in recent weeks and months, as you all know. I do not want to hear of members of my own audience going out there and engaging in it. So with my apologies to Cllr Norton.”