Cash-strapped Conservative council paid 'anti-Tory' comedian Simon Harris £500,000 to 'engage' with the public online during the Covid pandemic

Simon Harris rose to fame with a satirical Southend-based news site from 2015Essex council elected to pay him nearly half a million pounds for 'engagement' 

An ‘anti-Tory’ comedian was paid nearly £500,000 by a cash-strapped Conservative council to ‘engage’ with the public online during the pandemic.

Simon Harris was handed the huge sum of money to provide ‘digital consultancy and delivery via social media channels’ on behalf of Essex County Council.

In 2021 alone, the internet prankster was received £279,000 – £117,000 more than the prime minister’s salary at the time.

Details emerged on Thursday, two days after the local authority announced it was raising council tax by 4.99 per cent to ‘protect and develop essential services’ at a time that it is struggling with ‘significant financial pressures’.

It is also ‘reluctantly’ making £32 million of cuts to services to help pay for a ‘spike in the requirements for children’s services’.

Harris rose to fame with the satirical news website ‘Southend News Network’, launched in 2015

Conservative Party deputy chairman Lee Anderson, who has often been the subject of Harris’s jibes on social media, turned the tables on the comedian.

Writing on X, formerly Twitter, he said: ‘Is this the same Simon Harris who has been trolling me on social media for the past year? Sending my best wishes to Simon at this difficult time.’

Joe Ventre, digital campaign manager for the TaxPayers’ Alliance, added: ‘Wasting taxpayers’ money like this is no laughing matter.

‘While residents paid the price of the pandemic, the last thing they expected their hard-earned cash to be spent on is lining the pockets of a comedian.

‘Essex County Council owe it to local households to crack down on waste and focus funds on frontline services.’

Essex taxpayers voiced their anger on Facebook about the six-figure pay day for the entertainer, who appears to have since deleted his social media accounts.

One wrote: ‘Half a million! What a disgusting waste of our council tax, should be made to pay it back.’

Another said: ‘Wasting taxpayers’ money as usual.’

An online biography of Mr Harris described him as a 40-year-old ‘stay-at-home dad, blogger, internet personality and freelance social media manager’ who ‘spends all day on Twitter ranting into the void’.

It adds the father-of-four, who is based in Southend, Essex, and is married to Rachael, had 110, 000 followers on Twitter and 200,000 on Facebook before he deleted his accounts.

His ‘likes’ are listed as including ‘Harry and Meghan… toilet humour… Gary Lineker’, while ‘things he doesn’t like’ include ‘The Tories… GB News… Brexit’… Nigel Farage’.

He was paid a total of £393,000 by the county council between 2020 to 2023, with 34 payments ranging between £500 and £100,000.

Council tax for an average Band D home in Essex will rise by £72.36 to £1,522.53 as a result of the near five per cent hike.

The county council said it had an ‘established relationship’ with Harris before the pandemic as he provided ‘digital consultancy and delivery via social media channels’ to them.

When the Covid-19 outbreak began, he was employed to ‘engage with communities’ on critical issues affecting the local population.

These included sharing information relating to government restrictions, support for vulnerable individuals and volunteering opportunities at vaccination centres.

Harris had helped to ‘amplify’ what the council published on its own social media channels allowing them to ‘engage with a much larger’ audience.

Councillor Kevin Bentley, Leader of Essex Council

A spokesman said: ‘The engagement levels the council achieved through ECVA (Essex Coronavirus Action) and other social media channels managed by Simon Harris during the pandemic period were far in excess of what the council would usually have expected during a ‘normal’ period of operation.

‘It is important to note the payments covered more than just social media content and included activity to directly support others doing similar work across the country.

‘Such payments were also made through Simon Harris for expediency.’

Mr Harris said the Facebook page he ran initially provided information about ‘helping to prevent the spread of Covid-19’ but later evolved to become a recruiting tool for volunteers. One post was viewed by more than one million people, he claimed.

‘The nature of the work meant that during the most serious stages of the pandemic, I was providing services seven days per week and at a variety of times of the day and night.’

Pictured: Essex County Council headquarters. A Southend comedian received almost £500,000 from the council over three years for ‘community engagement’ during Covid

He took down his social media accounts after reporting to police the way allegations surrounding his payments had been shared with other organisations, he added.

‘There were serious consequences on a personal level beyond social media and the internet and so for my own safety I was compelled to report it as a police matter,’ he said.

Essex Police were contacted for a comment.