Cyber-squatting website adds to pressure on MP

In the latest twist in the continuing campaign over Wells MP Tessa Munt and her private life, an anonymous web campaigner has cyber-squatted the MP’s internet address.

The sophisticated effort saw website

Investigations into the origin of the site indicated that far from being registered by the MP, the site was owned by someone describing themselves as Our Tessa.

While cyber-squatting is not illegal, running a website which purports to be the property of one person and which publishes negative articles about them could lead to a court action for misrepresentation or defamation.

The site owner’s home address was not registered, their telephone number does not accept incoming calls and is listed only as Wells Constituency office, with a postcode in Dodd Avenue in Wells.

Registering a website under a false name at a fake address is illegal under UK law, but permitted elsewhere in the world. Within days of registering as

The site is a collection of links to previous newspaper and web articles about Tessa Munt and is running a poll about whether she should stand down.

The site has attracted 1,300 hits, and accumulated 144 votes – the vast majority insisting that she stand down as MP immediately, with a smaller number of voters saying she should stand down if the allegations about her claiming council tax benefit when not entitled to them against her are proven. Just eight voters say she should not stand down.

Just after the site appeared the

When contacted by this newspaper, “Our Tessa” who remains anonymous, but said by email: “I am a resident of the Wells constituency for over 40 years, brought up on a diet of honesty instilled in me from a very early age.

“I have always had an interest in politics from afar, not a card carrying member of any political party or trade union but with an interest in democracy and fairness in politics.

“The recent scandal relating to MPs’ expenses was very much in the news in this part of the world following our then MP, Mr David Heathcoat-Amory, being embroiled in the ‘Manure Scandal’. I can remember turning to my partner and saying ‘that’s not the only **** that’s going to get flung during the next campaign’ – and how true was that.

“Tessa Munt, as we were introduced to her through campaign literature and placards, fought a campaign based on corruption and exposing DH-A as a ‘dirty’ MP, promising that if we selected her to Parliament, she was the future, a new future of non-corrupt MPs representing us in the halls of Westminster.

“Not even 100 days into her parliamentary life, the allegations of financial impropriety appeared.

“With so much in the news, I got bored of sifting through the various publications and decided to help my ‘fellow constituents’ and put as much of it in one place to digest and make their own minds up.”

“I would like to state that I’m not alleging the allegations to be true – like everyone else, I await the outcome of Sedgemoor District Council investigations and am simply making them available for people to follow from a single place and draw their own conclusions – if it is proven that Tessa Munt did not infringe the claiming of discount then this website will report that openly.”

When told about the website, Tessa Munt said: “I don’t think I can do very much about this, really.

“If someone has got a problem or wants to discuss anything with me they are welcome to get in touch and I’ll be happy to talk to them.

“But there’s no point in my moaning about this website because there is absolutely nothing I can do about it.”

David Hodges has asked for it to be pointed out that while he visited Somerset most weeks to see his children, he actually only stayed at the home of the prospective MP in Mark on fewer than ten occasions. We are happy to make that clear.