Since being elected in 2019, a number of the ‘Red Wall’ Tory MPs have displayed something of an enthusiastic approach to social media activity. Lee Anderson generated headlines with his Facebook posts on England footballers ‘taking the knee’ at last year’s Euros while Dehenna Davison has caused a stir with her TikTok videos. But few can match the efforts of Jonathan Gullis, the MP for Stoke-on-Trent North, whose, er, energetic videos on Facebook live have promoted considerable comment in his local newspaper.
Gullis, who serves as an aide to Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis, has taken to filming himself striding around the parliamentary estate with his AirPods in, addressing his constituents on the big issues of the day. Recent efforts include a clip three weeks ago in which he announced he was boycotting a North Staffordshire park after being reported for walking his dogs off their lead. Denouncing the ‘left-wing whinge bag, moaner or groaner’ who tipped off the park authorities, Gullis vowed never to return there, as he recorded himself walking between buildings on the parliamentary estate.
Gullis denounces the ‘left-wing whinge bag, moaner or groaner’ who tipped off the park authorities
Unfortunately it seems the former teacher’s social media shenanigans have not gone down well with Commons bosses. Unauthorised photography or filming is, notoriously, not permitted on the parliamentary estate, with lobby journalists forced to follow strict instructions about what and can’t be recorded. And Gullis has now fallen foul of such rules. Steerpike understands that the MP has been contacted by the Serjeant at Arms: the head honcho charged with keeping order in the Commons.
The Stoke backbencher has now been ‘reminded’ he is not allowed to film there, with his most recent videos recorded off the parliamentary estate. Still, despite Gullis’s brush with the authorities, it seems that social media is still of paramount concern to the 32-year-old MP: he’s just published a job advert for a new constituency caseworker. Top of the list of duties will be to ‘establish, monitor and update a social media and online presence’ in Gullis’s seat, including producing ‘video content’ and monitoring ‘social media enquiries’ so that they ‘do not need to be transferred to a higher level.’
A wise decision: given Gullis’s track record on this, it’s probably best that he keeps well away from all social media in future.
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