Sutton teen smeared in Murdoch Times after council backs Israel divestment motion

Tory councillor attacks teenage constituent in press after success of BDS move

Last Monday, a packed chamber of Sutton councillors backed a seismic petition to divest from ‘companies operating in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, including East Jerusalem, or highlighted as being complicit in ongoing human rights violations in Gaza’.

However, shortly after the Council meeting commenced, The Times published an article with quotes from the leader of the Conservative Councillors Tom Drummond claiming the petition, and its timing, were:

frankly at its core antisemitic on today of all days, [it] is an absolute disgrace

because the petition was brought before the Council meeting on Holocaust Memorial Day – a date whose significance was referenced, and solidarity expressed, in the petitioner’s speech to the Council. Cllr Drummond must presumably have been fully aware that the date of the council meeting was decided, months in advance of it taking place – by the council, not by the petitioners or local residents.

Other councillors who spoke during the meeting praised the five-minute speech by Tommy Oliver, the teenage co-founder of Sutton Friends of Palestine, in support of the petition, Drummond must have provided his quotes to the Times ahead of the meeting – the Murdoch paper published its attack while the council meeting was still underway.

The article named Mr Oliver along with Cllr Drummond’s claim that the petition was ‘antisemitic’. There appears to have been no thought of any duty of care to the young man in the eagerness to score political points based on a false premise. Mr Oliver was not the only target of the smear: almost two thousand signatories to the petition, the councillors who backed it, and Sutton Council who scheduled and held the debate on Holocaust Memorial Day were also targeted.

Skwawkbox understands that locals have lodged complaints with Sutton Council demanding a full retraction of the smears and an apology from Cllr Drummond.

One complaint, which accuses Drummond of an ‘abuse of power’ and describes the Times’s claims as ‘vicious fabrication’, reads:

On Monday January 27 2025 at 7pm a meeting of Sutton Council commenced. Item 5 on the agenda was the debate of a petition to divest from ‘companies operating in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, including East Jerusalem, or highlighted as being complicit in ongoing human rights violations in Gaza’.

The petition was backed by a speech from constituent Tommy Oliver and was followed by input from Labour, Conservative and LibDem Councillors. The Council voted to support the petition. The meeting was well chaired by the Mayor and a large number of constituents witnessed democracy being carried out.

Also on Monday January 27 2025 at 7.16pm a few minutes after the meeting had started a news article went live in The Times newspaper which pre-emptively compromised the integrity of the meeting and of the Council’s democratic engagement with the constituents who were watching in person and online.

In the Times Councillor Tom Drummond made disgraceful allegations where the accused have no access to the right to reply. For the Times readers the allegations will be assumed to be true. Only the constituents engaging with the meeting will know that the Councillor’s allegations are vicious fabrication. This is an abuse of power when a sitting Councillor is so confident about his privilege that he will publicly leverage his role within the Council to attack a teenage constituent in the national press at the very same time that the constituent is invited by the Council to speak freely.

Tom Drummond is in contempt of the Council as he has literally expressed contempt for this constituent, contempt for the workings of the Council, contempt for every constituent who signed the petition and contempt for the majority of Sutton Councillors who voted to back the petition. His behaviour is completely unbecoming of a Councillor and completely unacceptable.

The outrageous attack from Tom Drummond is based on lies. As constituents we have engaged with democracy in the terms laid out by Sutton Council. The mechanism of the petition is per Sutton Council rules and the date and structure of the meeting was stipulated by Sutton Council. A Sutton Councillor publicly undermining us and abusing us on a national platform whilst we are following the Sutton Council rules is not how we expect democracy to be carried out. Democracy has been subverted when we expected it to be respected.

If Councillor Drummond had concerns over the timing of the debate he could have requested either a special council meeting to debate the item on another date or for the item to be deferred to the March council meeting as the Pension Committee does not meet until 1 April. The petitioners would have had no objection to that as at all times we were following the Council rules and timetables on submitting a petition.

Rather than request the Council change the date Drummond opted to use his disquiet about the date to defame his constituents. The actions of Councillor Drummond could intimidate constituents from submitting future local petitions, in fear of their name being published in a hit-piece in the national media. A democratically engaged constituent’s public reputation has been permanently damaged with potential repercussions for their professional and personal lives. Councillor Drummond has placed no value in the safety of this constituent – falsely claiming Tommy’s petition is ‘at its core antisemitic’ implies that this constituent is racist (this quote also caused the article’s headline in The Times to include the word antisemitic) and with this accusation published in the national media, it raises serious concerns for his safety and well-being.

Councillor Drummond has ignored the duty of care responsibilities that come with his role. The article: Headline: ‘Council to debate ‘antisemitic’ petition on Holocaust Memorial Day’ The timing of the debate was stipulated by Sutton Council. By claiming the timing is disrespectful the headline is in reality claiming Sutton Council is disrespectful to Holocaust victims, survivors and descendants. The article uses a photograph of numerous Sutton constituents with a tagline mentioning ‘condemnation’ of the group.

The condemnation is from people Tom Drummond claims to have spoken to. The article starts ‘Activists have been accused of disrespecting Holocaust Memorial Day’ – the activists are Sutton constituents, the date of the meeting and debate was decided by Sutton Council, the only person making accusations is Councillor Tom Drummond.

Tom Drummond continues to accuse Sutton constituents of something he knows is a Sutton Council decision: ‘Tom Drummond, the leader of the Conservative opposition group on Sutton council, said that his constituents “expressed complete shock” after learning that the appeal would coincide with Holocaust Memorial Day. “A lot of them are saying ‘why choose that day of all days?” he said. “There’s just that slight anger, that slight disappointment. It’s just not the right thing to do.’

If constituents expressed ‘complete shock’ at the information provided to them by Councillor Tom Drummond they will be more shocked when they find out the Council chose the date that is the source of their apparent shock. The criticism invited via the Tom Drummond misinformation then goes further as: ‘Jonathan Turner, the chief executive of the UK Lawyers for Israel, said: “The presentation of this petition on Holocaust Remembrance Day reminds us that the Nazis started with boycotting Jews — Kauft nicht bei Juden — accompanied, of course, by false propaganda defaming them.”

The Times article that Drummond collaborated with contacted an influential pro-Israel lobby group to further smear the teenage constituent by comparing him to the Nazis, and calling the petition ‘false propaganda’. It’s also based on the initial lie that the petitioners chose the date. This part of the article is a direct and predictable consequence of Drummond contacting The Times. Drummond is further quoted: ‘I’m a great believer in democracy, freedoms and people being able to put petitions in, but with that comes responsibility’.

This shows pure contempt for the democratic processes of Sutton Council. Sitting in the meeting where constituents are granted 5 minutes for a spokesperson to make their case oblivious to the fact a Sutton Councillor who is sitting in the same room has simultaneously published false statements about the constituents where they have no right to reply. ‘A great believer in democracy…able to put petitions in’ – what a galling statement when he knew he was actively subverting the democratic process. Drummond goes on: ‘to bring a petition that is frankly at its core antisemitic on today of all days, is an absolute disgrace’ – again the day ‘of all days’ is a Sutton Council stipulated date, the petition that is ‘at its core antisemitic’ was voted for by a majority of Sutton Councillors – Drummond pre-empted this by using the national press to announce that Sutton Council back an antisemitic petition.

This is a clear case of bringing the Council into disrepute. The article continues: ‘Drummond said that one or two Tory councillors would walk out of the chamber as they did not feel it should be debated’ No one left the chamber but Drummond had briefed the press to say that one or more Tory councillors would walk away from their democratic responsibilities – he was again briefing against the Council. The article continues: ‘He also said that Israel was being singled out in the petition’. This is again untrue. The petition is specifically addressing the conflict in Gaza and specifically talks of investment which funds illegality.

No one believes Sutton Council invests in Hamas so requesting withdrawal of funds invested in Hamas would be a waste of Council time, so that request was not made. The petition also talks of overall ethical investments. If Councillor Tom Drummond is aware of any unethical investments by Sutton Council he should highlight those and work with us to divest not brief against us and undermine us.

This incident is of grave concern. A teenage constituent had the courage to stand up in front of a full council meeting with a packed public gallery and online viewers and he fully engaged in local democracy. Unbeknownst to him a Sutton Councillor had fed lies to the media about him, about other constituents and about Councillors and the processes of Sutton Council – and these lies were being read in national media while the teenage constituent was eloquently addressing the meeting.

We ask that Tom Drummond retracts and apologises to Tommy Oliver and to the constituents who signed the petition and to the Councillors who voted for the petition. We ask that Tom Drummond writes to Jonathan Turner apologising for giving him misinformation. We ask that Tom Drummond writes to Ali Mitib of The Times apologising for giving him misinformation and asking for a clarification to be published. We ask that the behaviour of Tom Drummond has consequences – his position as councillor is severely compromised, he has abused the trust of constituents that they will be treated fairly by every Councillor and be given fair access to the democratic processes within Sutton Council.

Cllr Drummond did not respond to a request for comment on a draft of this article.

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