A Tory councillor tried to persuade party colleagues to join him in a smear campaign against local domestic violence services and women’s rights campaigners, a leaked email shows.

Scott Harris, a Conservative member of Portsmouth council, wrote in the email that he had been compiling information on a number of political opponents operating in the city before council elections.

He singles out Aurora New Dawn, a local domestic violence support charity, and its chief executive, Shonagh Dillon, as well as a local chapter of the feminist group Sisters Uncut, who have been critical of council plans for drastic cuts to domestic violence services.



Women’s rights campaigner Shonagh Dillon was one of the targets of a planned smear campaign. Photograph: National Diversity Awards

However, they and others named by Harris received the email after it was mistakenly sent out in a chain. The message says: “The elections are coming and the politics are dirty. The tricks by the Lib Dems, the lies and the smear are disgusting.

“Quite frankly it might be a good idea to play dirty this time. I know we shouldn’t go down to their gutter politics but should we continue to stand by and allow this to go on?

“I’m also compiling some stuff on Shonagh Dillion [sic], Aurora New Dawn and Sisters Uncut. Interestingly I’ve found some stuff on [local socialist activist] Jon Woods and the SWP locally which will be useful when the loony left come calling nearer May.”

A Sisters Uncut activist from the city, who preferred to remain anonymous, told the Guardian that Portsmouth council had found itself facing stark criticism from women’s rights campaigners and public opposition when it announced it would slash £180,000 from domestic violence (DV) services.

Criticisms became an embarrassment for the council after a local petition against the cuts reached more than 45,000 signatures and activists gatecrashed a council meeting last October to drop a banner from the gallery that read “cutting DV services kills women”.

Dillon, who was made aware of the email on Thursday, believes she was targeted as a result of her opposition to cuts. She said: “Aurora New Dawn believes this is totally unacceptable, but it is up to the residents and the electorate to decide what they think.

“In the meantime, we are still waiting for a response to our legitimate question about what their strategic funding plans are for victims and survivors of domestic abuse in the city of Portsmouth.”

They were not the only targets of the email, which also singles out a Portsmouth resident, Sameen Farouk, who had been asking questions of the council’s plans for the Portsmouth leg of the America’s Cup sailing race.

He questioned the council as to why tickets were being sold for a viewing area previously open freely to the public, when the council had yet to officially make a decision on whether that space would be handed over to race promoters.

Portsmouth harbour will host a leg of the sailing contest the America’s Cup. Photograph: Peter Barritt/Robert Harding World Imagery/Corbis

Harris’s email said: “I do not want to go down the road of finding ways to smear Sameen Farouk, but maybe we should look at this as a viable option. Isn’t this the chap who constantly wastes money on FoI [Freedom of Information] requests? How much money has he wasted the council this last year through some daft requests?”

Elsewhere in the email, Harris asks whether there is any way to contact West Sussex council, where Farouk works as a policy advisor, in an effort to try to get him sanctioned by his bosses.

“Is there anyway [sic] we could speak to someone who works at West Sussex and inform them what their staff member seems to be doing on a daily basis [?]” Harris writes. “He spends his day constantly on Facebook or sending pointless emails to members of the Conservative administration.

“He is a waste of taxpayers money for the people of West Sussex, surely there is a Conservative up there who can have a word with someone to investigate his productivity or if he is living up to the value of his contract.”

In a statement, Sameen Farouk said: “My motivation has always been that of a resident and nothing more and I have been exercising my rights as any other resident rightfully has.”

Harris and Woods were yet to reply to requests for comment by the time of publication. Portsmouth city council deputy chief executive and city solicitor Michael Lawther said: “We understand that letters of apology have been sent, by Cllr Harris, to those mentioned in his email.

“The email he sent is clearly private correspondence between councillors and other people. There are rules about the council being involved in political matters and because of this we will have no further involvement.”

A spokeswoman for Sisters Uncut said: “Women are being killed by their partners in Portsmouth, but Councillor Harris clearly does not care. It’s deeply disappointing that his priorities lie with political gameplay, rather than providing support for women fleeing violence.”