Inside Croydon's Steven Downes in Race Row Over Tweets at Indian-born Cllr

War of the Tweets - Steven Downes, Editor of Inside Croydon and Vidhi Mohan, Conservative Councillor - with images of the tweets

A senior Croydon Conservative Councillor has hit out at a string of offensive tweets posted by the leading Labour-supporting blog Inside Croydon. Indian-born Vidhi Mohan, a respected family man, was said to be horrified at the comments, which included references to his passport status and suggested that his party ´could not find a BME member with a passport.´ [BME stands for black and minority ethnic].

The Inside Croydon site is edited by Steven Downes who hit the headlines after publishing untrue allegations about Croydon Central MP Gavin Barwell. The site´s Special Correspondent is Andrew Pelling, recently unveiled as the leading Labour candidate in Waddon, following stints as an Independent and a Tory for over a decade. In a recent interview with the Croydon Guardian, Andrew Pelling said, “We'll run a positive campaign.”

Vidhi Mohan said to Steven Downes, “How did my not having a UK passport in 2005 affect my ability to serve Fairfield residents? Racist and offensive blog!”

Steven Downes denied that the tweets were racist, he tweeted, "How is identifying you as not holding a UK passport when seeking election in Croydon racist?"