Doorcam footage of the police visiting Helen Jones’s house on Tuesday, February 18

Helen Jones (pictured) called for the resignation of local councillors embroiled in the WhatsApp scandal exposed by The Mail on Sunday

It is the latest in a string of incidents in which police have investigated people for social media posts, including newspaper columnist Allison Pearson, feminist writer Julie Bindel, and former policeman Harry Miller, whose name was added to a database for his ‘non-crime hate incident’. Mr Miller, who founded the Fair Cop campaign group, said of Mrs Jones’s treatment: ‘It flies in the face of our freedoms and it’s wrong. That’s far more akin to a European police force – or even worse a Stasi police force.’

The two plain-clothes officers arrived at Mrs Jones’s home and demanded to talk to her after she commented on the offensive messages shared in a Labour WhatsApp group that The Mail on Sunday exposed this month. Our story led to the sacking of health minister Andrew Gwynne and the suspension of Burnley MP Oliver Ryan and 11 Labour councillors.

Police knocked on her door in Stockport within 48 hours of receiving a complaint, in contrast to how they have responded to other crime reports. Mrs Jones, a school administrator, said police failed to investigate a spate of car thefts in the surrounding streets last year.

Greater Manchester Police has one of the highest crime rates in Britain and fails to solve almost three out of four shoplifting incidents.

The extraordinary episode took place days after this newspaper revealed how Gwynne, the MP for Gorton and Denton, posted a vile message to Labour colleagues on a WhatsApp group saying he hoped one elderly constituent, who didn’t vote for the party, would die before the next election. He made the offensive comment on the ‘Trigger Me Timbers’ WhatsApp group after the pensioner sent a letter to Stockport Labour councillor David Sedgwick complaining about her bin collections.

At around 1.30pm last Tuesday, while Mrs Jones was looking after her baby grandson at a nearby house, a detective sergeant and another officer knocked at her door and spoke to her husband Lee, 54, via an intercom

Mrs Jones said: ‘[The officer] said, ‘We’ve had a complaint,’ and I immediately asked, ‘From who?’, and he said, ‘Well, I can’t tell you that’

Gwynne also posted racist and sexist messages and joked about a cycling campaigner being ‘mown down’ by a truck. Parliament’s standards watchdog has launched an investigation into him.

In the wake of the scandal, Mrs Jones repeatedly posted that Cllr Sedgwick must resign from his Heatons North seat on a closed Facebook group called 4Heatons Hub, and another publicly available page called Reddish Matters.

In one post on 4Heatons Hub, Mrs Jones said of Cllr Sedgwick: ‘Let’s hope he does the decent thing and resigns. I somehow think his ego won’t allow it.’ In another, after posting screenshots from the Trigger Me Timbers group, Mrs Jones wrote: ‘Not looking good for Cllr Sedgwick!!!’ to which another member added: ‘Cllr Sedgwick, will you be resigning?’

At around 1.30pm last Tuesday, while Mrs Jones was looking after her baby grandson at a nearby house, a detective sergeant and another officer knocked at her door and spoke to her husband Lee, 54, via an intercom.

A shocked Mrs Jones rushed home fearing something tragic had happened to a loved one. At 2.15pm she received a phone call from an officer thought to be the same sergeant who knocked on her door and was told the police had received a complaint about her recent social media posts.

Speaking exclusively to the MoS, she said: ‘[The officer] said, ‘We’ve had a complaint,’ and I immediately asked, ‘From who?’, and he said, ‘Well, I can’t tell you that’.’

She asked if Cllr Sedgwick or his partner had made the complaint. ‘[The officer’s] exact words were ‘Your thought process is correct in that’,’ said Mrs Jones. ‘I asked the police officer, have I committed any sort of crime. Why did you call at my door? They said, ‘Someone has spoken to us about your social media posts.’

A shocked Mrs Jones rushed home fearing something tragic had happened to a loved one. At 2.15pm she received a phone call from an officer thought to be the same sergeant who knocked on her door and was told police had received a complaint about her recent social media posts

‘I then said, ‘If I don’t take your advice and continue doing what I am doing, will I be committing a crime?’ He said no. I then asked. ‘What will you do about it?’ He said, ‘There’s not a lot we can do, we are just giving you advice’.’

Mrs Jones also asked why they had come to her within 48 hours of a complaint ‘yet I know neighbours that try to report car crime and can’t even get the police out?’ to which the officer is said to have replied: ‘I’m not getting into that sort of stuff.’

Mrs Jones added: ‘I remember saying to him, I’ve got the right to have an opinion as a member of the electorate. He just kept mumbling.’

After six minutes, Mrs Jones hung up, furious that she was made to feel like a criminal in front of her husband and four children. She said: ‘It was actually quite scary. I’m living my life day to day, law-abiding, and then suddenly I’ve got the police at the door showing a warrant card.’

Greater Manchester Police said last night: ‘We spoke to the woman for six minutes to advise she was the subject of a complaint of harassment and to answer any questions she may have.

‘No further action is necessary as no crime has been committed.

‘We are under a duty to inform her that she is the subject of a complaint. The genuine threats that have been made to local councillors recently have meant it has been more necessary to ensure all reports are looked at. On this day officers were making 203 arrests for crimes like assault, burglary and rape. Tackling these priorities are why the complaint was dealt with two days after it was reported.’

The controversy is set to reignite concerns about the police wasting time probing so-called ‘non-crime hate incidents’ instead of pursuing their core mission of fighting crime Figures obtained by the MoS reveal Greater Manchester Police recorded 881 so-called ‘non hate crime incidents’ over the past two years – more than one a day.

Mrs Jones also asked why they had come to her within 48 hours of a complaint ‘yet I know neighbours that try to report car crime and can’t even get the police out?’

Manchester has the fifth-highest crime rate in England and Wales, with 158 offences for every 1,000 people, according to Home Office data. Police say recorded crime across the region was down by 8 per cent last year .

Shoplifting, however, is surging with 21,890 cases recorded in 2024, of which just 26 per cent were solved – although that was a 7.1 per cent increase on 2023.

Criticising the action against Mrs Jones, senior Tory MP Sir Alec Shelbrooke said: ‘This is an a waste of police resources. The Government cannot seriously be saying that they are looking for efficiency in public spending while police officers are taken away from crimes to go and knock on the doors of residents and say, ‘You haven’t actually committed a crime but we want to have a word’.’

Tameside Tory councillor Liam Billington, who was contacted by Mrs Jones for help last week, said: ‘What Labour are now trying to do is control free speech. As a councillor I know I will get things wrong, I am not perfect. But it’s a democratic right to be able to criticise your elected officials.’

Sir Iain Duncan Smith added: ‘I’ve had people say they don’t want to vote for me and being rude about it – what am I going to do? Report that? That is ludicrous. It’s normal and it should be left well alone.’