Harrogate Lib Dem leader accuses council leader and MP of harassment over ‘threatening’ legal letters
by
Apr 14, 2022
Cllr Marsh holds the letters during last night's meeting. Cllr Cooper is also pictured.

The leader of Harrogate and Knaresborough’s Liberal Democrats has revealed she received legal “threats” from the council leader and local MP over alleged defamatory statements.

Councillor Pat Marsh said one letter from lawyers representing Conservative council leader Richard Cooper included demands for £5,000.

The letters, which Cllr Marsh waived in her hand at the meeting, relate to claims she made that Cllr Cooper was not “direct in condemning” the former North Yorkshire Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner Philip Allott who resigned last October over comments he made on the murder of Sarah Everard.

At a Harrogate Borough Council meeting that month, Cllr Cooper said Mr Allott’s previous comments that women needed to be “streetwise” were “very, very wrong.”

Councillor Cooper then repeated his remarks, saying there was “no credible defence” for what Mr Allott said. In an email sent to several media outlets after this, Cllr Marsh claimed “Cllr Cooper’s response did not lead to a direct condemnation”.

The legal letter to Cllr Marsh ended with a demand she pay £5,000 as “an interim payment” ahead of any legal proceedings:

An extract of the letter from a law firm representing Cllr Cooper.

Meanwhile, another letter from lawyers representing Andrew Jones, the Conservative MP for Harrogate and Knaresborough, demanded an apology from Cllr Marsh. This related to comments she made that a resident had become “caught up” in a “web” of problems because Cllr Cooper is employed by Mr Jones.

At a council meeting last night, Cllr Marsh said she believed the letters amounted to “harassment”. She said:

“I would like to make the chamber aware of two recent legal letters which I felt were threatening – I had one from Cllr Cooper and Andrew Jones MP.

“The legal letter from Cllr Cooper went on so far as to demand £5,000 from me personally.

“These letters made me feel extremely stressed – I considered them harassment and they forced me to seek legal advice to defend myself.”

In response, Cllr Cooper said last night:

“I’m afraid if you say something that is libellous and a lie, then you can expect legal activity.
“I’ve had it in my various roles going back as far as 1996.”

The Stray Ferret understands that neither letter led to any further action being taken against Cllr Marsh.

Calls for ‘positive’ campaign

The revelations came during last night’s meeting as Cllr Cooper made calls for a “positive and constructive” local election campaign ahead of elections to the new North Yorkshire Council on 5 May.

However, the meeting soon turned sour with the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats trading blows on several issues, from their records on attending meetings to claims made in their campaign material.


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Later in the meeting, Cllr Cooper, who is not standing in the elections, said:

“I’m not going to get into this tit for tat.

“I tried to do something nice to enable us all to say to the people who will be elected – there will be some Liberal Democrats, some Conservatives – good luck to you, fight for all of us.

“I wish that could have been reciprocated in a rather less hostile way.

“Nonetheless, the sentiments expressed stand and, I believe, irrespective of the comments made, they stand for all of us.”

Cllr Cooper added:

“We have worked together on the vast majority of things this council does well over the eight years that I’ve been leader.
“We agree on 99% of things but on the 1% of things we don’t agree about, we can make a hell of a lot of noise.”