THE conspiracy theorist who echoed Boris Johnson while an angry mob harrassed Labour leader Keir Starmer is a former Tory councillor.
Will Coleshill was the Conservative councillor for Bush Hill Park on London’s Enfield Council before he was suspended from the party in 2018 for making racist remarks about a Labour colleague.
He then sat as an independent until the summer of 2021, when he was kicked off the council for failing to attend meetings for six months.
Coleshill now works as a “co-editor in chief” of Resistance GB, a website and Youtube channel claiming to focus “on resisting erosion and abolition of British culture, our constitution, our common law and more”.
READ MORE: Keir Starmer, Jimmy Savile, and the Tories' 'move towards disinformation'
Under the name “Willsy”, the former Tory councillor is credited with “filming and presenting” the eight-minute video, which shows Starmer being harrassed by a mob of anti-lockdown protesters on the streets of London.
He appears on camera himself only briefly (screenshot below right), after getting into pushing matches with police officers. After being told that he will be “nicked” if he touches a female officer again, Coleshill responds: “If she puts her hands on me again I’ll nick her.”
Earlier in the video, Coleshill can be heard to shout at Keir Starmer, echoing attacks made on the Labour leader by Boris Johnson in the House of Commons.
Coleshill demands to know if Labour under Starmer are standing up for “working” people or just the “elites”.
“Why have your party allowed our Magna Carta, our rights, our common law, to be ignored?”
“Why did you go after a journalist [Julian Assange], Mr Starmer? Mr Starmer, why did you target a journalist?” he can be heard to shout.
Johnson was widely criticised for using “Trumpian” tactics by opposition and members of his own party after he linked the paedophile Jimmy Savile to Starmer in the Commons.
READ MORE: Nicola Sturgeon reacts as Keir Starmer surrounded by angry mob near Parliament
The Prime Minister said Starmer had been a “director of public prosecutions who spent more time prosecuting journalists and failing to prosecute Jimmy Savile”.
Although Coleshill does not raise Savile with the Labour leader in the video, his channel’s description of the video reads: “Police lash out at the crowd & journalists present, many of whom raise Starmer's own involvement with the failure to prosecute Jimmy Savile (prolific nonce).”
The incident sparked widespread condemnation of the Tory leader for his involvement in the spreading of the far-right conspiracy theory, with his close adviser Munira Mirza quitting over the affair.
However, a government source told London Playbook that it was “plainly wrong” to link the anti-lockdown protesters’ use of the Savile slur to Johnson’s use of the same slur exactly one week before.
The anonymous source said: “It is plainly wrong, and without evidence, to suggest that the PM’s comments in any way increased the likelihood that these loons would be on the street trying to cause trouble.
“The fact that some are trying to turn this into another day’s row about Savile feels like opportunism that is a distraction from where our condemnation should be directed.”
In an image shared on Twitter in the wake of the video's publication, Coleshill can be seen smiling next to Johnson.
The voice & person behind the channel of Resistance GB who screamed at Kier Starmer is William Coleshill ex Conservative councillor https://t.co/5ljW3tLBJX pic.twitter.com/TZg1mDq29K
— Mohammed Shafiq (@Mohamme09073545) February 7, 2022
Coleshill has previously made the news after he took part in a mob following now Levelling Up Minister Michael Gove. He was also among the anti-lockdown demonstrators who targeted BBC Newsnight editor Nick Watt, and attempted to confront Jess Phillips, the Labour MP for Birmingham Yardley, outside parliament in 2019.
His references to Julian Assange were to the claim that Starmer was involved in the British authorities’ attempts to force Sweden to continue to pursue the case against the Wikileaks founder.
An email exchange reported by the Guardian saw Sweden try to drop the case in 2013, before an anonymous official from the Crown Prosecution Service - which Starmer then led - wrote: “Don’t you dare get cold feet!!!”
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel