Steven Winstone: Sheffield Conservatives chairman under fire after 'deeply offensive' posts on his X account

Mr Winstone's X account, formerly Twitter, does state that retweets on his feed are not “endorsements” and that tweets are by his "team".

Sheffield Conservatives responded: "Steven Winstone is away and has been advised. He respectfully reminds that attribution of anything to him as an individual, on an account that has always stipulated “Tweets by team”, and where there is a resultant mischaracterisation on him as an individual, will be unfortunate.

Mr Winstone became the chairman of the local Conservative Party in January 2024 and appeared on behalf of local candidates on BBC broadcasts multiple times during the recent general election campaign.

However, a number of posts on his X account, from both before and after he took up the position, have been highlighted as being “highly offensive” by Human Rights and Equalities campaigner, Chrissy Meleady, who has now said his position as party chairman is “untenable”.

Shortly after the Sheffield Conservatives issued their response to The Star, Mr Winstone's X account was changed from public to private, meaning only his followers could see his posts. After this the account quoted an Elon Musk post about social media teams which read: "Leaders should post directly, not hand the role to intermediaries. That is what works best.

"Mistakes will be made, but that's what proves it's real. People want authenticity."

Mr Winstone's account shared Elon Musk's post with its own comment reading: "True."

As chairman of the Sheffield Conservatives, Mr Winstone, who has more than 21,300 followers on his X account and who once ran for office in Sheffield as a UKIP candidate, will be tasked with the running of the group, its membership and party activities. The exact responsibilities can differ from party to party, but can also include oversight of candidate selection in elections.

A recent repost from Mr Winstone’s X account includes a quote tweet of far-right American politician Majorie Taylor Greene’s press office.

In the post, which includes a photo of Barack Obama, Joe Biden and Jill Biden and Michelle Obama standing under a painting of George Washington, includes the caption “These three men ruined America”. George Washington supported the abolition of slavery in the United States.

This post was retweeted by Mr Winstone’s account after he became chairman.

Ms Meleady, having shared and discussed the posts with leaders of various diverse local communities, said: “Members of Sheffield’s Black community and their anti-racist allies have found this to be discriminatory and deeply offensive.”

She added: “Those who have been adversely impacted by Mr Winstone’s account and its dissemination of other discriminatory, offensive and highly inflammatory posts, consider that his position as Chair of the Sheffield Conservative Party is now untenable and requires for his position as Chair to be reconsidered by both himself and the party he represents.”

The national Conservative Party did not respond when approached for comment regarding Mr Winstone’s position as Sheffield Conservative chairman

Conspiracy theories.

Ms Meleady has also condemned a number of posts shared by Mr Winstone’s X account which include details from a number of right-wing conspiracy theories.

One post the account re-tweeted, before he became leader of the local party, reads “Global warming update: it’s snowing in Scotland, in July. Why isn’t the BBC reporting this? Answer: because it doesn’t fit the climate crisis narrative.”

Subsequent users of X’s ‘Community Notes’ function corrected the tweet by offering links to BBC coverage of the weather event.

Ms Meleady said the post presents that “climate change is a hoax” and added that, by sharing the post, Mr Winstone' account was “espousing climate denial”.

There were also multiple posts on Mr Winstone’s X account concerning Covid-19. One repost, shared after he became chairman of the local Conservative Party, featured an image of Sir Keir Starmer, wearing a face shield whilst visiting care workers during the pandemic. It was captioned: "If you vote for these dumb f***s then you deserve everything you get. Absolute state of them ffs.”

Ms Meleady said: “This reposting of something so offensive and on a matter of great importance is highly unbecoming and wrong of a local party leader.”

One post which read “Amazing how Covid is back just as Trump is up in the polls. What are the odds!” is quote tweeted by another account who adds: “Bingo”. Mr Winstone’s X account re-tweeted this. This post was re-tweeted before Mr Winstone became chair of the local party.