A Conservative councillor has lashed out at Dominic Raab and the Tories for “spreading lies” and “creating division” – and urged his constituents to vote for the Liberal Democrats in next month’s local elections.
Alan Kopitko, a Tory councillor for Elmbridge in Walton North, circulated a letter to residents revealing that he “can no longer support the Conservatives”.
He wrote: “Sadly, the Elmbridge Conservatives believe that Councillors’ prime responsibility should be to promote Dominic Raab and national politics. I cannot support this, I have always put the local community first.”
Encouraging voters to support the Lib Dem candidate next month, Kopitko praised the party for running the council “in a professional manner” and rejecting the government’s “unnecessary housing numbers”.
“Dominic Raab’s Conservative party in Elmbridge is not the Conservative party that I joined,” he said. “In their relentless pursuit of power at any cost they are spreading lies and misinformation, creating division and standing in the way of good people working together for the residents of Elmbridge.”
Deriding the local Tory party’s local election leaflets – which contained “lies about bin collections” – Kopitko said the Conservatives “make it difficult for people to know who to trust”.
He added: “You only have to look nationally with the lies that Boris and his followers have portrayed denying parties that they engaged in during lockdown echoing themselves whilst the COVID infection was spreading, and people were dying.
“This is detrimental to our democracy, whatever your political affiliations.”
Read his letter in full below.
Related: Penny Mordaunt hails Brexit win as Britain signs trade deal…. with Jordan
