Recollections may vary! 'Spare time Sutton' row revives as he says staff misheard him |
And that certainly seems to be the case with Colin Sutton, Norfolk’s police and crime commissioner, and his staff over a key discussion when he first suggested to them he might take his one-man show on a national theatre tour.
Mr Sutton eventually gave up on the idea following a public outcry last month when details of his true crime stage show – which would have taken 11 months and involved 127 appearances - were made public.
He initially insisted he would go ahead with the tour – in which he talks about his career as a detective with the Met - claiming he could do it in his “spare time” alongside his £79,000-a-year, taxpayer-funded job.
Critics questioned this and he was dubbed “Spare time Sutton”.
The botched tour contained 127 dates (Image: Entertainersuk)
But after days of mounting anger he changed his mind - and could have been forgiven for thinking the row was behind him.
Alas, it has now returned following a Freedom of Information request about a meeting he held with his team at the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner about his plans.
He has claimed he initially planned to go ahead with the tour because he believed it would be far smaller in scale and that when he had discussed it with his staff they had raised no objections.
Documents relating to the meeting do indeed show the Reform PCC outlining a considerably briefer tour than the 127-date one which was eventually announced.
The documents state that he told chief executive Mark Stokes and director of governance Sharon Lister on August 10 that just 14 dates were........