The two Green Party members on the council said the image showing a group of men on a road in a housing estate was “the latest in a series of social media posts from the deputy leader of Durham County Council intended to misinform, divide and sow racial hatred within Durham’s communities”.
North Durham Labour MP Luke Akehurst criticised the use of AI-generated images, saying: “It’s inflammatory and fake news to use AI-generated images to illustrate a policy argument like this.”
Labour councillor Rob Crute said Grimes was “using fake images to score political points”.
“It’s cheap and it’s easy but it’ll be seen by our residents as just another attempt to grab the headlines,” he said.
Grimes dismissed the councillors’ criticism, saying Labour, the Liberal Democrats and the Greens did not care “one iota” about the people of County Durham.
What he had published was not “racial hatred”, he said.
“It isn’t. It is the opposite. It is standing up for every Durham family, of every background, who played by the rules and is being told to wait longer because the system has been rigged against them.”
Leave a comment