'A witch-hunt': Desborough councillor speaks out after resignation

UKIP’s Kevin Sills resigned from his seat on Desborough Town Council yesterday (Monday).

He had faced heavy criticism after being filmed shouting at someone in a meeting and calling one of his constituents a ‘girly’.

Now he says he was targeted on social media.

He said: “The real story is that I have been ‘hounded out’ of an officially-elected council position by a small group of malicious people who oppose the local tax precept increase last year.

“This unpleasant group have stated ‘if you put enough pressure on them, someone will resign’.

“This is correct, as you give your time to serve the community in an elected volunteer job.

“As I am, or was, the only one in opposition to the other 11 Conservative councillors, and the only one that has a Facebook presence, this makes me a prime easy target.

“I have had many people goading me, and in this latest incident, I believe I’ve been ‘trolled’ by opponents.

Mr Sills added that the outrage over his ‘girly’ remark has been “a lot of hot air” and a “witch-hunt”.

He said: “I have made hundreds of comments recently and thousands of words on Facebook yet this one-word comment of ‘girly’ has been selected to be the worst, claiming it to be really bad, outrageous and all-round disgusting.

“What a lot of hot air, there are a lot worse comments put on Facebook daily.

“Basically, the word ‘girly’ can be misinterpreted, as it’s not a word often used.

“It is how the recipient responds to being called it.

“I believe it’s not in itself derogatory, but may be construed as such. My late father often used it.

“This is a bit of a witch-hunt over nothing and trivial compared to Stoke’s new Labour MP Gareth Snell’s comments on his Twitter account.

“I have apologised several times directly to this person.”