Complaint over HSC president and protest march tweet

The complaint centres around a tweet written by Deputy Soulsby about a public march against the States’ decision on secondary and post-16 education.

She voted in favour of the two school 11-18 model.

In response to a media post about the march, Deputy Soulsby said ‘well at least the exercise will do them good’.

The comment provoked an angry response on social media and one of the march’s organiser’s, Pete Burtenshaw, has submitted the complaint.

‘Her comments on Twitter were completely inappropriate,’ he said.

He felt the comments were aimed at St Peter Port North deputy John Gollop.

‘It demeaned him and I felt it was targetting him,’ he said.

‘There were also people of all shapes and sizes at the event. She is the head of Health & Social Care.’

He was calling for her to step down as president and also resign as a deputy.

Deputy Soulsby issued a statement in response.

‘This is nothing more than a vexatious attack on my integrity,’ she wrote.

‘That light-hearted comments should have been twisted and used to attack me is a damning indictment of both social media and the current state of Guernsey politics.

‘The level of personal abuse I have received on social media is beyond anything I have every encountered before and were I to have posted any of those comments then a code of conduct complaint would have been valid.

‘I did not and would not, as anyone who knows me would testify.’

She said she would not be making any further comments until the code of conduct panel has reached their decision.