Grandmother at centre of sacked health minister Andrew Gwynne’s ‘hope she croaks it’ jibe hits out at MP’s ‘contempt for old people’_Nhy
A grandmother last night hit back at the health minister sacked for saying he ‘hopes she croaks it’, saying he had shown contempt for older people.
The pensioner, 76, speaking for the first time since The Mail on Sunday’s investigation led to Andrew Gwynne’s swift downfall last weekend, also demanded that he apologise.
Mr Gwynne, 50, was axed after the MoS exposed how he had posted a vile message to Labour colleagues on a WhatsApp group saying he hoped the retired school administrator, who didn’t vote for the party, would die before the next election.
He also posted racist and sexist messages and joked about a cycling campaigner – his constituent in Gorton and Denton, Greater Manchester – being ‘mown down’ by a truck.
His offensive comment about the grandmother came after she sent a letter to Stockport Labour councillor David Sedgwick complaining about her bin collections.
Mr Sedgwick shared part of the letter – in which the pensioner admits to not voting for him – on the ‘Trigger Me Timbers’ WhatsApp group and asked for any reactions.
Mr Gwynne posted a mock reply: ‘Dear resident. F*** your bins. I’m re-elected and without your vote. Screw you. Dave.’ He added: ‘P.S. Hopefully you’ll have croaked it by the all-outs.’
‘All-outs’ is a reference to council elections when every seat is up for grabs.
Mr Gwynne, 50, was axed after the MoS exposed how he had posted a vile message to Labour colleagues on a WhatsApp group
Keir Starmer at a Labour Party cabinet meeting in Salford with Mr Gwynne in 2019
Within hours of being confronted with the MoS’s dossier, Sir Keir Starmer stripped Mr Gwynne of his health minister role and suspended him from the Labour Party.
Burnley Labour MP Oliver Ryan, 29, and 11 Labour councillors were also suspended over the thousands of messages spanning a period from 2019 to 2022.
The grandmother, who wants to remain anonymous, admits the ‘penny only dropped’ that her letter had played a part in Mr Gwynne’s downfall when she heard ‘bins’ being mentioned in news reports.
A Tory voter, she had written to Mr Sedgwick only because her daughter, who also lives in Stockport, had ‘recommended’ him as ‘someone who had helped over her bins’. She said that elderly people would find Mr Gwynne’s comment offensive.
She added: ‘You begin to wonder how that filters through to how he behaves in other things like voting, such as how he voted over the winter fuel allowance. It shows his contempt for older people.’
She said people in government had a responsibility to follow ‘higher standards’ and must be more careful what they say, even in a private WhatsApp group.
She also questioned why her letter was posted to the group by Mr Sedgwick in the first place back in 2021. ‘I cannot think what he was thinking of,’ she said.
At the time Mr Gwynne made his offensive comment about her, he was speaking in Parliament in support of elderly women who had campaigned for compensation after being affected by increases to the state pension age. This, she claimed, made him a ‘hypocrite’.
The Gorton and Denton MP said he hopes a 72-year-old woman will soon be dead after she dared to ask about her bins
Mr Gwynne also posted racist and sexist messages and joked about a cycling campaigner – his constituent in Gorton and Denton, Greater Manchester – being ‘mown down’ by a truck
‘He was showing contempt for older people [in the messages] but then he’s showing another face somewhere else – so it’s a bit two-faced isn’t it?’
Mr Gwynne also labelled another constituent a ‘hag’ who lived in a ‘s***’ house. The grandmother said it showed some MPs ‘didn’t have much time’ for the elderly. ‘They should remember they’ll be old themselves one day,’ she added.
She also blasted Mr Gwynne over his comments about Labour MP Diane Abbott, Deputy Leader Angela Rayner and a man he labelled ‘too Jewish’.
She has called on Mr Gwynne, Mr Sedgwick and Stockport Council to apologise to her.
On her part in Mr Gwynne’s downfall, she says he ‘had to go’. ‘Why should he stay a minister? He’s not showing a good attitude to his colleagues or his constituents.’
Her husband, 75, accused Mr Gwynne of a ‘lack of judgment’, adding ‘an MP should have standards to abide by’.
Labour has launched an investigation into the WhatsApp group, saying ‘swift action will always be taken’ against those who have breached the high standards of party membership.
It could lead to Mr Gwynne losing the party whip. Mr Ryan could also face stronger action.
