In a heartwarming tale of healthy democratic engagement, a Tory councillor has been accused of participating in smearing a teenager who spoke up for Palestinian rights, via a hit-piece in the Times.

On 27 January, 19-year-old Tommy Oliver urged Sutton council to review its investments in order to assess any links with the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).

In a speech to the council, the young leader of the Sutton Friends of Palestine (SPOF) said: “In the last few days Israel has clearly broken ceasefire conditions in Lebanon, and Donald Trump has openly pushed for the total ethnic cleansing of Gaza. Israeli military and settler violence has escalated in the occupied West Bank as Israel launched airstrikes and incursions into Jenin, shooting a nurse and forcing a hospital to evacuate … Two days ago a two-year-old girl was shot in the head by the IDF.”

The petition which triggered the debate started in November and ended on 12 January. The debate was held at the next council meeting, which happened to fall on Holocaust Memorial Day. In recognition of this, Oliver made the day a theme of his speech, calling it “a day that serves to remind us all of the consequences of dehumanisation”.

“We learn the lessons of history and we say ‘never again’ for anyone,” he said.

Shortly before he spoke, the Times published a story about the “antisemitic” petition which had triggered the debate. It quoted Conservative councillor Tom Drummond, who said: “I’m a great believer in democracy, freedoms and people being able to put petitions in, but with that comes responsibility. To bring a petition that is frankly at its core antisemitic on today of all days is an absolute disgrace.”

Had Sutton Friends of Palestine forced the council to hold a debate on that particular day, it could indeed have been seen as provocative. And it would be a strange procedural quirk if the Sutton Friends of Palestine was in charge of managing the diary of Sutton council. But it is not. As a spokesperson from Sutton council confirmed to Novara Media: “Council meetings take place on Monday evenings. The dates of all council and committee meetings are set far in advance of the individual meetings.”

In other words, that the debate was held on Holocaust Memorial Day was a coincidence. You might have expected Drummond to know this as leader of the opposition group on the council. You might also have expected the likelihood that this would be the case to have given a newspaper of record pause for thought.

The Times article said that SPOF had been approached for comment. So why didn’t the group correct the record? “We were not contacted. Never. We still have not been contacted,” said Oliver.

The Times did find time, however, to speak to Zionist group UK Lawyers for Israel. Its chief executive Jonathan Turner said that the timing of the petition “reminds us that the Nazis started with boycotting Jews – Kauft nicht bei Juden – accompanied, of course, by false propaganda defaming them.”

This may have been a bit of an overreaction. Is a calendar mishap in the leafy suburbs of south London really a portent of a new wave of Nazism? Did the brownshirts march around submitting petitions calling for ethical investment policies aligning with commitments to universal human rights? Or is this, in fact, the story of a young man participating in local democracy, speaking up on one of the great moral issues of our time, and getting smeared by people who should know better?

A spokesperson for SPOF said: “The Times article named Oliver along with the ‘antisemitic’ accusations from councillor Drummond. Any care of duty to the teenage constituent ignored in favour of political point scoring based on lies.”

Awkwardly for Drummond, a few Tory councillors abstained from voting on the petition, suggesting that they don’t agree with his assessment that it was “at its core antisemitic”.

Neither the Times nor Drummond replied to Novara Media’s request for comment.