"IT'S HARD enough to support the Tories as they currently are."

"Who is in charge at CCHQ? The place is run by morons."

"It makes it hard to defend the Tories when they keep outright lying."

You might think these words were written by a passionate Labour supporter.

But you'd be wrong, because these were, in fact, written by a senior staff member who works for Taunton's former Conservative Member of Parliament, Rebecca Pow.

The comments emerged in Tweets, posted in the last month, bad-mouthing the party, which Rebecca Pow represented in the constituency of Taunton Deane.

While Ms Pow is not currently an elected member after Parliament was dissolved in the run up to the December 12 election, she is hoping to win the votes of her constituents on Thursday to continue her role in the House of Commons.

The worker, who your Gazette believes deals directly with constituents and we have chosen not to identify, has worked for Ms Pow since August 2018 and posted the outbursts on their personal, public Twitter account.

We have verified their identity as a worker for former Conservative MP Rebecca Pow, who was an environment minister before Parliament was dissolved.

Among tweets you would expect - lauding the Conservative Party and their policies, and questioning those of the opposition Labour Party and the Lib Dems – are a number of shocking swipes at the Tories, including branding elements of the party 'morons' and 'liars'.

Quoting a Tweet from Sky News which features Sajid Javid claiming Labour was responsible for the massive rise in homelessness, the worker wrote: "It makes it hard to defend the Tories when they keep outright lying."

Another example features a Tweet from the official Conservative account (@Conservatives), which said: "Only Boris Johnson and the Conservatives can be trusted to keep Britain safe."

The Tweet included a photo depicting Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn, saying the Prime Minister was 'tough on terrorists', while the Labour leader was 'soft on terrorists'.

The worker posted this Tweet to their account, adding: "This is f*****g shameless. I am genuinely disgusted."

Somerset County Gazette:

They also aired views on a stunt by the Conservative Party PR Twitter account (@CCHQPress), in which it changed its name to 'FactCheckUK' during the first general election leaders’ debate.

They wrote: "If the Conservatives pull another stunt like they did last night with the fact checking site that is it for me - it's hard enough supporting the Tories as they currently are, it's literally as if the party does not want young people to vote for it."

The worker then added to another post: "Who the f**k is in charge at CCHQ, the place is run by morons."

And in another broadside, when discussing the Conservative party's manifesto, they noted: "There is barely anything in the manifesto about protecting children's welfare, but at least cats are getting their microchips."

In another post, the worker also questioned why the party is focused on house buying, when many young people are forced to rent.

"Why so much focus on buying? Young people are not thinking about buying. We rent, we probably will rent for a very long time, implement measures to protect the renter, not the landlord," they wrote.

The account does feature other opinions which speak positively about the Conservatives, and critically of other political parties such as Labour.

Since your County Gazette approached Ms Pow for comment, the worker has changed the settings on their Twitter account to make it private, meaning they are only visible to those ‘following’ them.

When approached by the Gazette, the staff member explained they were not acting as an elected member, and that they are employed by an independent company.

"I’m not an elected representative, I’m paid by an independent external body (IPSA) and my personal views are independent of an MP or political party,” they said.

"I was contacted in relation to selected comments but no mention was made of the vast majority of tweets which speak positively of Conservative policies.”

Ms Pow was asked to comment three times by your County Gazette, before a representative sent a near-identical comment.

A spokesperson from her office said: “The staff member is not an elected representative, is paid by an independent external body (IPSA) and their personal views are independent of an MP or political party.

"The staff member was contacted in relation to selected comments but no mention was made of the vast majority of tweets which speak positively of Conservative policies.”