July 2004

by Neil Connor

‘A mobile phone campaigner was in tears yesterday after she was stopped from confronting Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy in Hodge Hill.

Eileen O’Connor, chairwoman of Sutton Coldfield Residents Against Masts, reported Liberal Democrat activists to police after she claimed she was jostled away from Mr. Kennedy.  Mrs O’Connor said she wanted to tell him that Nicola Davis, the party’s candidate for the by-election was unsuitable as an MP because of her links with the mobile phone industry.  However, the campaigner said she felt as she was in a “rugby scrum” as placard-waving activists formed a barrier around the Liberal Democrat leader outside the party’s Hodge Hill headquarters in Washwood Heath Road.  She said: “I couldn’t believe it. They were pushing and shoving me.  It was really intimidating and it has really upset me.  I have been crying all day.  All I wanted to do was tell Charles Kennedy that he has got the wrong candidate but I was subjected to physical and verbal abuse.”