On the final day of campaigning by political parties in the UK ahead of the 2015 General Election, Gavin Barwell who is looking to keep his seat in Croydon Central has angered Eagles fans, after claiming on Twitter that he stopped Crystal Palace from going into liquidation in 2010.
The tweet that was posted yesterday morning has only just come to the attention of many Eagles followers, leading to questions of both sarcasm and seriousness being posed to the local government figure. Mr Barwell sent an e-mail to the chancellor at the time George Osborne not long before the club were due to be liquidated, asking him to step in and help prevent the community from being affected by such an event.
Hundreds of Palace fans, some of which were present at Lloyds Bank on 1st June 2010 when talks were taking place between consortium CPFC 2010 and the creditors, who were blocking a takeover from being completed, have attacked the Conservative MP over his claims that he saved the club with many tweets including the word ‘liar’.
Achievement 1: working with thousands of @CPFC fans to stop the club being put into liquidation in 2010. #GoodLocalMP pic.twitter.com/AAFM68g6Hp
— Gavin Barwell (@BackBarwell) May 5, 2015
It does seem like this is the first time that the political figure has taken claim for the club being saved, with a possible motivation for taking credit being that this general election is due to be the closest that the country has seen in decades.
On his blog, just hours after it was announced that Crystal Palace had been taken over in principle and would not be liquidated, Barwell praised the Palace fans for the noise that they made outside Lloyds on 1st June by saying “thanks to the demonstration outside their office by Palace fans.”
“Lots of other people lobbied hard behind the scenes including Croydon Council and our London Assembly member Steve O’Connell but most of the credit must go to the thousands of Palace fans who have fought so hard to keep their club alive.”
Is this a political stunt that has gone wrong for the Conservative candidate for Croydon Central?
Dear @BackBarwell – two blogs from May 31 and June 1 2010 do not mean you worked with thousands of us #cpfc http://t.co/TdmNW9vJRC — Allan Williams (@AllanDLWilliams) May 6, 2015
@BackBarwell @CPFC You helped save the club in 2010? Can’t say I noticed. When were you last at Selhurst Park? #cpfc #GE2015
— Paul Grant (@ChobhamEagle) May 6, 2015
@BackBarwell I’d like to thank Gavin for also scoring the winning penalty at Wembley two years ago. Cheers, Gav! #cpfc — Jack Pierce (@Jackpierce88) May 6, 2015
