Labour councillor slams Mansfield MP's twitter porn joke

A labour councillor has criticised Mansfield MP Ben Bradley for joking about watching porn in his office.
Ben BradleyBen Bradley
Ben Bradley

Mr Bradley was appointed as the vice chair for youth for the Conservative Party earlier this week during the cabinet reshuffle.

He posted the comments in a series of tweets between him and another MP Paul Masterson.

Lauren Mitchell, labour councillor for Hucknall branded the comments 'childish'.

In an interview with Radio Nottingham she said: "It is inappropriate, particually in the current climate. that we are in. He's been an MP throughout the time of the sexual harrassment and inappropriate behaviour in Westminister.

"It's not funny, he's acused me of not having a sense of humour, myself I don't think its appropriate in the role his is in.

"You just have to think if this was any other role, they would be in big trouble."

"I don't think its funny and I don't think alot of young women will find it funny.

"And he has just been promoted to the person thats going to apparently engage young people into Conservative politics. I don't think this is the way to do it.

"I'm not sure if, for want of a better phrase, he thought, you know, this is me getting down with the kids, I will do some swearing on Twitter, make a few jokes about porn and that will do the job.

Ms Mitchell was asked if she was using Mr Bradley's comments to 'have a pop' at him as a member of the Conservative party.

She said: "I would do the exact same thing if he was a Labour MP. This isn't a party political thing. This is something that I'm passionate about, young women getting into politics. This is so off-putting, for young women to look at someone like that, who is a young person, to find these kind of comments about porn.

"I mean you've just got to imagine being a young woman and working in his office, or a young women looking at going into politics and seeing these kind of jokes, its inappropriate and its wrong and quite frankly it is disrespectful to young people to think that that is what they're all about."

She added that Mr Bradley's comments were particularly foolish considering recent allegations concerning Damian Green, who stepped down as first secretary of state after admitting he lied about the presence of pornographic images on his House of Commons computer.

You Chad has contacted Mr Bradley for comment.