An Independent candidate standing in the Saltford by-election for a seat on Bath & North East Somerset Council, has denied that a controversial social media account is linked to him, saying he’s been “trolled”.
Photos of Chris Warren were posted on the X (formerly Twitter) account in May and December 2020
The Bath Echo and sister title The Week In were contacted last week by a local resident about the “alarming content” in the X account, which has the handle @the_grieve (The Ghost of Dominic Grieve).
The account, which was set up in 2019, includes pictures of Chris Warren, a former chair of Saltford Parish Council, and contains many offensive posts and images.
The account holder also praises far-right activist Tommy Robinson, Reform UK and the party’s leader Nigel Farage.
There have also been several claims on X (formerly known as Twitter) recently that Mr Warren is linked to the @the_grieve account.
We reached out to Mr Warren last Friday after reviewing the account. We also approached Nathan Hartley, a former Independent councillor for Peasedown St John, who was originally elected as a Liberal Democrat. Mr Hartley has been campaigning with Mr Warren and designed one of his election leaflets.
On Wednesday Mr Hartley told us that he had spoken to Mr Warren who said the account is not his.
We then asked Mr Hartley if there are concerns that someone is trying to impersonate Mr Warren and sabotage his attempt to become a B&NES councillor. We have yet to receive a response.
Mr Warren did speak to the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) this week however, telling them that it was not his X account, and he had not even seen it, suggesting that images of him on it had been taken from Facebook.
He said: “People can get images of people, can’t they? Drop them in and do all sorts of stuff.”
He added: “It ain’t me. So if someone’s putting stuff out there, I didn’t do it. I don’t know. […] I’ve been trolled.”
Posts on the X account call Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch a “dopey looking mare”, Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner “thick as pig s***,” and former Green MP Caroline Lucas “a Green r***rd”.
Mr Warren laughed as LDRS read out these posts. Asked if they reflected his views, he responded: “No.” He then added: “I find them quite funny. I do find some of them quite humorous.”
He added that he did not think people would “give a monkey’s either way” about the X account, adding: “If people don’t want to vote for me, they don’t want to vote for me if they think it’s associated with me. If they do, they do, if they don’t, they don’t.”
The group of Independent councillors on B&NES Council were made aware of the existence of the @the_grieve account earlier this week.
There are other derogatory remarks on the X account, including about Vice President of the United States Kamala Harris, and the former Labour MP for Bristol West Thangam Debbonaire.
There are comments insulting public sector workers including those at B&NES Council. On 19th December 2024 @the_grieve wrote: “Local Government is the worst. A dumping ground for useless public sector drones where they do very little then leave for another local authority ride on the gravy train.”
The current Liberal Democrat administration of B&NES Council is described as “Commies”. There are disrespectful comments about NHS workers, Muslims, the North East Somerset & Hanham Labour MP Dan Norris and the people of Bristol.
Comments on climate change include “Screw net zero” and: “A wood burning stove, or an open fire is a wonderful thing. If any c*** knocks my door and tells me I can’t heat my house how I choose under some vague notion of me harming someone else he will be given umpteen f*** offs.”
There is also an image of a letter written to the RNLI explaining why it won’t be getting a donation as it has “morphed into a Taxi Service for economic migrants, rapists, criminals and terrorists”.
Posts from last month include: “Reform represent me and my views perfectly.” Also in December, in response to the question “Do you trust Nigel Farage?” posed by another X user, @the_grieve responds: “Far more than any other politician.”
@the_grieve also mentioned recently about being a member of the Labour Party “up until Blair took us into war with Iraq”.
Posts dating from Christmas 2020 show a man who appears to be Mr Warren wearing a Christmas T-shirt with a picture of Conservative Prime Minister Boris Johnson on the front; there is another of him wearing a T-shirt featuring Jacob Rees-Mogg who at the time was Conservative MP for North East Somerset.
An image of Chris Warren was posted on the X (formerly Twitter) account in the early hours of 1st February 2020
The by-election on Thursday 16th January has been triggered by the resignation of Liberal Democrat councillor Alison Streatfeild-James, who represented the Saltford ward on B&NES Council.
Mr Warren stepped down as both chair and a member of Saltford Parish Council in 2023 before standing in May of that year as an Independent to represent Saltford on B&NES Council but was narrowly beaten by Ms Streatfeild-James with just 34 votes between them. She was elected along with her Liberal Democrat colleague Duncan Hounsell.
Mr Warren is standing again and there are five other candidates in next Thursday’s by-election.
They are:
- David Busby (Conservative)
- Daniel Condick (Reform UK)
- Jane Giddins (Labour)
- Hossein Pirooz (Liberal Democrat)
- Luanne Thornton (Green Party)
As well as Saltford itself, the ward covers Burnett, Bath Spa University’s Newton Park campus, Chewton Keynsham, Compton Dando, Corston, Newton St Loe and Queen Charlton.
Additional reporting by John Wimperis, Local Democracy Reporting Service
