Jonathan Gullis is being rinsed by Wikipedia trolls after his promotion

Jonathan Gullis being appointed deputy chairman of the Conservative Party (replacing Lee Anderson who resigned to rebel on the Rwanda Bill, lost the whip over comments about Sadiq Khan and then defected to Reform UK) has gone about as well as you’d expect, with the announcement sparking ridicule and his first media appearance in the role ending with him blaming “pesky peers” for blocking Rwanda legislation, when he himself abstained on the issue.

Now, it’s emerged his Wikipedia page has been hit with a number of unfortunate edits following news of his new job, with trolls relishing the opportunity to mock the Stoke-on-Trent North MP.

The first notable tweak came just after 4pm on Wednesday, when the opening sentence of Gullis’ article described him as a “dim-witted politician”. It was removed by the same Wikipedia user a minute later.

At 6:10pm, another user waded in and listed his credentials as “a British politician, former teacher and all round [sic] bellend”.

Three hours later, his name was changed to “Jonathan Seagullis” – a reference to online memes originating from an unsubstantiated Reddit comment which claimed the former teacher “had a proper s*** fit” after a pupil supposedly photoshopped his head onto a seagull, captioned it “Jonathan Seagullis”, and “spread it round the school”.

Gullis does not appear to have not commented on the “Seagullis” rumours, but in in an interview with Tes in 2020, he did reveal that he was nicknamed “Grumpy Gullis” during his teaching years, as he “never smiled” after he “once cried in front of class” only for the class to ‘take the mick’.

As more serious Wikipedia users removed all of the online vandalism, at 10:40pm one individual edited the page to ensure Gullis was “credited with an innovation he created”.

What was this “innovation”, we hear you ask?

Under the formal introductory paragraph, it read: “Gullis is famously known for having been credited with the invention of vaginal dryness, which occurs whenever he’s in female company.”

In a move similar to Boris Johnson “mildly [sandpapering]” - allegedly fabricating – a quote while working as a trainee at The Times, another edit made up comments from Gullis in the aforementioned Tes interview, suggesting he was nicknamed “Jonathan Seagullis”.

That edit, made at 11:20pm on Wednesday, is yet to be removed at the time of writing.

While Gullis hasn’t commented on the Wikipedia edits at present, he did clap back at a tweet mocking his promotion from former Tory and The Independent Group/The Independent Group for Change/Change UK MP Anna Soubry, by sharing the infamous snap of her and other Change UK members eating in a Nando’s restaurant.

Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter

Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.