Councillor Ruth Dombey, the Lib Dem leader of Sutton Council is facing calls to publicly apologise by members of the public, Conservative councillors and even the National Landlords Association after sending a scaremongering email, leaving many residents in fear that they were about to be evicted from their homes.
Cllr Dombey sent an email that reached an estimated 15,000+ people headed with the words “eviction notice” in red capital letters and “notice to vacate your property”, in an attempt to scare residents into believing their spin on the Housing and Planning Bill currently moving through Parliament.
Chris Norris, head of policy, public affairs and research at the National Landlords Association, said: “This is a shockingly crass and irresponsible email for any elected official to send, let alone a council leader. Tenants will have been given heart palpitations reading the subject line and banner, only to then find it is a party political stunt. Councillor Dombey should publicly apologise for what we believe is a grave lack of judgement from such a senior local figure.”
Matthew Maxwell Scott, Chairman of Sutton Conservatives and Conservative Parliamentary Spokesperson for Carshalton & Wallington, said: "Cllr Dombey has acted in a way that is unbecoming to a public servant and calls into question her ability to hold such an office as Leader of a London Borough Council. It is interesting that her colleagues, including Mr Brake, have remained silent when residents are screaming out for an apology. He should join calls for Cllr Dombey to apologise."
Cllr Tim Crowley, the Leader of the Conservative Group on Sutton Council, said: "The silence from the Lib Dem camp other than to boast how many signatures they got on their petition, demonstrates they only care about collecting people's data and not their views. No doubt the resident's who signed this petition will receive unsolicited emails from them in no time. Some residents would have been incredibly frightened receiving such an email. Cllr Dombey needs to issue a public apology, and I can assure residents that we will be pushing for this and looking for an assurance that these type of scare tactics will not be used in the future."