A few scant weeks after signing an Early Day Motion calling for the reform of libel laws ‘which stifle free expression’ , John Mann threatened a Retford resident in his sixties with  libel action for asking questions about his expense claims.

After seeing Mann’s threat of libel action against me, a Retford resident got in touch and sent me copies of an email exchange between himself and John Mann in February this year. He has asked not to be identified or quoted directly as he is concerned about police involvement. More on that later. But he is aware that Mr Mann will know his identify.

The exchange started civily enough, with the Retford Resident (I’ll call him RR) asking John Mann if he had repaid any expenses and did he employ any relatives.

Mann replied via his parliament.uk email address asking for RR’s home address to which he would send a copy of the Legg report.

RR replied with details of a specific repayment which he had been made aware of, coincidentally the one which I had highlighted and ultimately led to Mann’s letter to me, and asked Mann to clarify it. He also asked again for details regarding employment of family members.

Mann’s reply consisted of two short lines:

This is inaccurate and libellous.

Any such libel will be actioned

RR replied, pointing out that Mann had again avoided answering the questions and saying that the voters should have a chance to make up their own minds about the subject.

Mann’s reply was even shorter than the last.

As you are using a fake name this will then go directly to the police.

RR was not using a fake name and pointed this out to Mr Mann, also stating that he was greatly concerned by Mann’s threatened involvment of the police. So much so that he had passed the correspondence to his solicitor.

This email exchange continued further, with Mann NEVER SATISFACTORILY answering the questions and alluding to a plot by the Conservatives and/or ‘the people who stole the miners compensation money’. He again referred to RR’s emails containing libellous material and repeated the threat of legal action.

This is blatant bullying of a constituent by Mr Mann, using his position as an MP to try and stop any questioning of his expenses by the voters.

He was elected to represent his constituents, not bully them into silence.

This is part of a pattern of bullying behaviour by John Mann.

He is unfit to represent the people of Bassetlaw in any capacity and in light of these revelations, should resign his position immediately and allow the local Labour Party to field a candidate who would have the constituents’ interests at heart, not their own.