'I'm a sitting duck over social media payments'

Simon Harris says working for Essex County Council was the 'biggest mistake' of his life

A social media figure who was given hundreds of thousands of pounds by a council during the pandemic said he feels like a “sitting duck” due to concerns on the spending.

Simon Harris, 40, was paid £367,000 over four years by Essex County Council to run social media accounts designed to promote public health messaging and other causes during and after the Covid pandemic.

He was also given an additional £163,000 to pass on to others, including payments for those working at vaccination centres, despite not being a council employee.

In his first full interview since the amounts were revealed earlier this year, he said: “Thinking about it now, it’s absolutely horrific, probably the biggest mistake I’ve ever made in my life. All it’s done is make me a massive sitting duck because in terms of public records, the buck stops with me.”

'I'm just some bloke who makes memes'

Mr Harris, who describes himself as a social media content creator, told the BBC he was first approached in 2018 by Kirsty O’Callaghan, the then head of strengthening communities, over doing work for the authority to improve its engagement online.

He said this work increased over the pandemic and recalled a phone conversation when he was asked to distribute more than £100,000 to other social media influencers and causes.

“I think about it now and it is absolutely ridiculous, and it is something I would never ever do again.

"I can think back to a phone conversation and it was more just like the conversation you’d have with a council official if they were asking you to look after a cat for a couple of weeks or a packet of biscuits."

He added: “I’m just some bloke who makes memes and people read them, sometimes they don’t read them, and because it was over Covid I’m just assuming that all this must be normal and they just need to get stuff done.”

The payments were made to Mr Harris via officials at County Hall in Chelmsford

The payments and Mr Harris’ name came to light in January this year prompting him to delete his social media accounts, which he admits, “wasn’t the best way” of dealing with it.

However, he said he was trying to protect his family while also struggling with his own fears over what might happen.

“I’m waking up in the middle of the night drenched in sweat. Every time someone is sending me a screenshot of somebody mentioning something I’m getting heart palpitations.

"I’m thinking come offline, keep a low profile, and see what happens, when in fact that wasn’t the best way of handling it."

Mr Harris said having his "wife and four kids at home" has helped him cope with the situation. “I’ve just got to try and deal with this as best I can,” he added.

Counter fraud outcome 'not known'

Mr Harris also revealed he faced questions in late 2021 from Essex County Council’s counter fraud team, which he described as an “absolutely horrendous” experience but that he had not heard anything from them since.

Mr Harris was involved in setting up and running Facebook pages such as Essex Coronavirus Action, which has since been renamed Essex is United.

A recent report from the council’s own audit, governance and standards committee found that some of the Facebook pages being run by Mr Harris and his colleagues had fewer then 200 followers despite thousands of pounds being spent.

Mr Harris told the BBC that in his view the project was “value for money”.

He said: “I strongly disagree with people who say I just took a load of money and didn’t do anything with it.

“The mechanism of how it all came about is horrific and needs properly sorting out which I’m assuming it is.”

Kirsty O’Callaghan, who no longer works for Essex County Council, has not responded to a request for comment.

A spokesperson for Essex County Council said that during the pandemic “extraordinary decisions had to be taken very quickly” with the need to “reach millions of residents in new and different ways”.

“As stated in February, some money was paid to an individual to pass onto others. Although it was not illegal, it would not have been allowed to happen in this way if our central services had been aware," the spokesperson added.

“Simon Harris was always an independent contractor who was contracted to provide services to the council. The council has made no criticism of Mr Harris or his work.”