We were notified earlier today that something was amiss with Dr Adam Sykes’ declarations inside some of his election material.  Dr Sykes is the Tory candidate challenging Alison McGovern’s Labour majority of 4,599 in Wirral South.

After making some enquiries and tweeting Dr Sykes, the concerns that were raised have not been addressed, explained or cleared up.

Dr Sykes was in touch on Twitter when notified, claiming his innocence and a possible ‘error’ on the Wirral Council website.  Wirral council is controlled by Labour.

Let’s have a look at the material.

Firstly, here’s an excerpt from the election publication which raised eyebrows when posted recently to households in Wirral South:

The statement “Adam set up his own computer software business in 2013 and now employs six local people” is the one under the microscope here.

Let us examine it.  We went to www.wirral.gov.uk/councillors and browsed to Dr Sykes’ register of interests, where all company associations are required to be listed.

This information is 4 years 6 months old.  A lot could have happened in that space of time and probably has.  However, it’s required by law to be regularly reviewed, kept accurate and up to date.  If as an elected member, you’re not making the declarations you should be or not ensuring that following declared changes to your circumstances, the published information is accurate, then you’re in the wrong, and risking the lodging of well-founded complaints.

As for the information itself, the listed company “Guananej” does not exist.  At least not on the Companies House register where it would be statutorily required to exist.

Councillor Sykes tweeted earlier, and in vague, unhelpful terms, to tell us that his company (no name provided) was started in 2013 (after the date of the above information):

We still didn’t know the name of the business, but if “that” was his old one, what was the name of the new, current one, the one he indicated in his leaflet, when pushing his credentials as an employer of local people?

We tweeted, asking him to fill in the gaps, but have received no response as yet:

https://twitter.com/Wirral_In_It/status/869499052798431232

https://twitter.com/Wirral_In_It/status/869499263096696832

It soon became clear via a separate tweet in response to Barbara Caulfield that the name of his new company was “Livepoint” or “Livepoint Software Solutions” as declared on the Companies House website.  It’s worth noting that the same person is registered twice, but under two different names; Adam Sykes and Adam Christopher Sykes.  Adam Sykes for Livepoint and Adam Christopher Sykes for a now dissolved company called Quanano. I don’t believe that’s permissible, one person having two identities.  Imagine if one identity’s company went bust, it’s proprietor having asset-stripped the company and done a runner. The other, unassociated identity would remain in the clear.

Livepoint’s registered address is in Oldham but the actual company is physically situated in New Hall Lane on the Carr Lane industrial estate in Hoylake, Wirral, here:

So all appears to be in order apart from the two identities and the fact that despite having the Livepoint company incorporated on 19th February 2013, four and half years later, there is a bogus company falsely declared on the Wirral Council website, his actual company is nowhere to be seen, and the Conservative councillor and June 2017 election candidate has still not ensured that the correct declarations have been made public.

Let’s hope Dr Sykes clears this up before 8th June and responds to our tweeted requests, because Wirral South residents reading this deserve a better standard of service and may decide not to back him.  We will be only too pleased to put the record straight with any information he provides.

We will not be tweeting Wirral Council to notify or to ask them to put their house in order, having tweeted the basket case 100s of times since joining Twitter in May 2010 and never receiving a response.

2nd June 2017 – Update

For some context, here is a piece of literature put out by Wirral South Conservatives dating back to the time of the external investigation into abuse by senior officers of Wirral Council Social Services, who were protected by Wirral Labour councillors.

This was a hideously ill-advised attempt at gaining some cheap publicity, and also a prime example of how politicians are prepared to scare people into voting for them using whatever means available, and with whatever threatening imagery came readily to hand.

To add insult to injury they didn’t bother to mention the fact that it took the sustained courage of a Social Services whistleblower – Martin Morton – to bring these gory details to public attention.  In response, the Labour administration tried to cover it all up, forcing Mr Morton from his job.  He remains unemployed to this day.

The stark difference between blogs such as Wirral In It Together, Wirral Leaks, John Brace and the various political party machines is that we bring wrongdoing to public attention in the public interest, and in the hope that those with the power to effect change will address the failings and right the injustices.  Whereas, political parties do it for themselves, in the interests of attacking their opponents and with the hope of winning votes, all on the promise (often bogus) that they are the ones to be trusted.

So on the strength of the above, and their behaviour in central government, can the Conservatives be trusted?  We’ll leave that with you…

To assist Wirral South voters, we’ve indicated and circled their June 2017 General Election Conservative candidate, Dr Adam Sykes.

5th June 2017 – further update

Upon checking the Wirral Council website and Councillor Adam Sykes’ Register of Interests we’re pleased to report that he’s been as good as his word and has had the information updated to reflect the situation as it stands – he is a Director of Livepoint Software.

The issue of registering twice with two separate identities (as both Adam Sykes and Adam Christopher Sykes) on the Companies House Register (see above) still remains.