Green Party councillors at Suffolk County Council, who form the official opposition group, have expressed disgust at a social media post created yesterday by Cllr Chris Hudson, who was formerly the leader of the council’s Reform UK group, and is currently the Reform UK Cabinet Member for Highways, Passenger Transport and Transport Strategy.
The post was an AI-generated image of fellow Cabinet member Cllr June Mummery with large breasts in a low-cut top, with the text relating to the recent decision by the council to make cuts to the school nursing service.
These cuts are part of a series of proposed reductions to the Healthy Child Service due for decision at the Cabinet meeting on Tuesday following a public consultation.
The AI-generated image of Cllr Mummery was quickly deleted, but screenshots of the post are still circulating on X (formerly Twitter) today, with a number of other sexual comments by Cllr Hudson on photos posted by young women also being circulated by users of the social media platform.
Annette Dunning, Deputy Leader of the Green group, and group spokesperson for Communities, Diversity and Equalities, said:
“The act of sharing non-consensual and sexualised AI deepfakes is a severe violation of digital safety.
June Mummery, the councillor for Carlton Colville in Lowestoft, must be appalled by the image posted by her colleague and fellow Cabinet member.
Jess Asato, MP for Lowestoft, has been a high-profile target of AI-generated images in the past and has taken legal action against Elon Musk’s X-AI company after saying its GROK tool helped a user produce fake sexualised images of her.
This total disrespect towards a fellow councillor brings Suffolk County Council into disrepute and it reflects badly on us a professional organisation and as an employer. What message is this sending to women in public life, council employees and of course, all our female residents?
We have seen the recent ITV documentary and the comments made by Reform UK councillors when they did not know they were being recorded, and after which the Equality and Human Rights Commission wrote to the party expressing concern at the racist and misogynistic views expressed. One of their own MPs, Sarah Pochin, was recorded saying how chauvinistic the party was.
Suffolk County Council should be distancing itself from this kind of behaviour, and we hope the Leader of the Council, Michael Hadwen, will show clear and swift leadership.
We believe Cllr Hudson is unsuitable to sit on the Cabinet at Suffolk County Council and call on him to resign from his post.”
