Tory MP for Esher and Walton Dominic Raab is threatening legal action against campaign group 38 Degrees for having the temerity to publish his publically available email address - dominic.raab.mp@parliament.uk - on their 'contact your MP' system.
Tory MP for Esher and Walton Dominic Raab is threatening legal action against campaign group 38 Degrees for having the temerity to publish his publicly available email address – dominic.raab.mp@parliament.uk – on their ‘contact your MP’ system. When seeking the Tory nomination, Raab, an ‘international lawyer’, claimed to be “ready to serve every community…”
Executive director David Babbs today told Left Foot Forward:
“Over the last 12 months, 38 Degrees members have worked together to make all MPs more accountable to us, their voters. Tens of thousands of us have come together to clean up lobbying in Westminster and to call for a new recall law that would mean people could call a fresh vote if their MP wasn’t doing their job properly.
“Now, an MP has got in touch to tell us he doesn’t want his constituents to be able to get in touch by e-mail. As far as we know, he didn’t ask his constituents what they thought before he made that decision. So now, we’re going to ask 38 Degrees members in his constituency what they think, so we can work together to make a change if they’re not happy about it.”
On their website 38 Degrees explain:
“We’ve been in touch with the Information Commissioner and they’ve reassured us that because he is an MP and his e-mail address is in the public domain, he has no grounds to report us. We let Mr Raab know this and he responded by having the House of Commons remove his e-mail address from their website.
“We spoke to the Information Commisioner’s office and again they reassured us that because he is an MP and because his email address is in the public domain we’re in the right by letting his constituents get in touch with him…
“When Mr Raab was an election candidate he gave out his personal email address to use. Now he’s an MP, with an official parliament email address paid for by the taxpayer, he’s telling us to stop people using it and making threats. No other MP anywhere in the UK has ever threatened 38 Degrees in this way.
“Mr Raab is a trained lawyer with friends in high places. Even though he appears to be wrong, he could cause us some trouble and cost us money in legal advice.”
38 Degrees has launched a local poll of members in Raab’s constituency to decide what to do next.
186 Responses to “Tory MP tells constituents: “Don’t email me… it’s becoming a real nuisance””
Jonathan da Silva
With so much happening in the world and with the looming threat of unacceptable cuts this would appear to be the left equivalent of the Naomi Campbell story.
What next Tory MP leaves a floater? Or am I being too high brow?
Demonising individual Tories to create a narcissism of small differences with the Labour Govt (accepted for now as opposition in a leadership election they’ve whitewashed their placards and put up new slogans) would appear only to make sense to people who want to be future Labour MPs. No doubt some Tory blogger has an equally asinine piece on some back bench Labourite.
The left needs new clothes and thought not to get into Westminister tittle tattle or we are just going to end up with a New New Labour party vacuously selecting slogans and inventing reactionary policy to match again.
I sent Lab MP Alan Keen an email asking him to support Caroline Lucas’ early day motion on Ian Tomlinson he did not reply bar a card acknowledging my correspondence. Do I care? No.
Thomas O Smith
RT @igeldard: RT @IanPJ: Tory MP tells constituents: “Don’t email me… it’s becoming a real nuisance” http://bit.ly/d1XOyQ #libertarian
Shamik Das
Excellent stuff from @TomHarrisMP —> Following Dominic Raab's example. http://bit.ly/c4Nw8b See also http://bit.ly/9OAR5j
Julie Wareing
RT @wdjstraw: RT @leftfootfwd: Tory MP tells constituents: “Don’t email me… it’s becoming a real nuisance” http://bit.ly/9OAR5j @38_de …
James Lewis
♺ @denny: Tory MP tells @38degrees that emails from constituents using their site "are becoming a real nuisance" http://s.coop/28o + …