LABOUR Party activist Zac Arnold is threatening legal action against Lydney Town Council after being likened to MP Jo Cox’s murderer Thomas Mair.

Jayne Smailes, the town council’s chief executive, has admitted she sent an email to Gloucestershire Police in November 2018 in which she compared Mr Arnold with Mair, who is currently serving a life sentence.

But at Monday night’s council meeting she defended her action saying she had a duty to protect her staff. This followed a council chamber fracas last month when Mrs Smailes called police after Mr Arnold refused an order to leave the meeting.

The 18-year-old student was arrested for breach of the peace but later released without charge.

Mr Arnold said the email was now in the hands of his solicitors as he seeks legal advice about its contents.

He said he had obtained the email via a Subject Access Request which is a personal data request to find out what information the police hold on a person.

At Monday’s meeting, Mr Arnold told the town council: “In an email to Gloucestershire Constabulary, the council’s chief executive compared myself, another member of the public and an elected member of this council to the far-right terrorist responsible for the tragic murder of Jo Cox MP, simply for standing outside the building discussing issues with another councillor.

“Do the members of this council consider this appalling comparison either accurate or acceptable?”

In her reply, Mrs Smailes said she ‘had a duty’ to protect staff at the council offices and believed the comparison to terrorist Mair was fitting.

She added: “With someone like Jo Cox, you know, the analogy is there. I am sorry you did not like it but if that is how we have to interpret such a thing.

“Nobody in this day and age is safe. We have to protect staff, members have to protect their employees and, if we want to write, as of process to the police, that is what we will do.”