A PETITION started against a Torfaen councillor contains a string of spurious names.

As the Argus reported today, the petition calling for Pontypool councillor Mike Harris to be relieved of his council duties began after complaints made against the independent politician about comments he made on social media about lesbians and Muslims.

Torfaen council’s ethics and standards committee investigated Cllr Harris’ comments and found that both were offensive.

But the committee stopped short of taking any sanctions against the Pontypool ward councillor, saying he had not breached the code of conduct he must abide by, adding the European Convention on Human Rights protected his freedom of speech.

The online petition had gathered nearly 100 signatures today but some of the names on it are clearly not genuine.

These include “Mr mr”, “smarty vader” and “Mr miss”.

Cllr Harris said the petition was “vexatious” and claimed that anybody could have a petition online and maintained that it would not go anywhere.

The Argus has tried to contact the person who started the online petition at petitionbuzz.com but we did not have any reply at the time of going to press.