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PCC, Steve Turner

ex-Cleveland PCC, Steve Turner

Scott Hunter

11 March 2025

Caroline Wheeler, political editor at the Sunday Times, doesn’t read Tees Valley Monitor. Neither, as it appears, does she read Sky News. She’s too busy. For the past week, at least, she has been listening to one Steve Turner. That’s former Cleveland Police and Crime Commissioner, Steve Turner (previously UKIP councillor for Longbeck, Redcar).

And the result is this article which appeared on Sunday 9 March: The Labour MP and the Anonymous Allegations That Ruined My Life (paywall.  A synopsis of the article appears at the end of this report). What’s particularly unfortunate about this is her apparent willingness to take Turner at his word without doing any background research.

Steve Turner, it turns out, is aggrieved. The reason he’s aggrieved is that his reputation was severely dented by allegations made about him both by Middlesbrough MP, Andy McDonald, and also by the current Cleveland PCC, Matt Storey. These allegations resulted in his being secretly investigated by the same police force that he was presiding over at the time. Whether or not he’s also aggrieved at the treatment he got at the hands of Sky News is not mentioned in the article.

Turner obtains information using subject access requests

The article claims that ‘newly obtained’ subject access requests show that Andy McDonald had lodged complaints against Turner, then demanded to parliament that he resign without disclosing that he was the source of the allegations in the first place.

“Steve Turner has spent the past three years painstakingly rebuilding his shattered life after being falsely accused of “systematic theft”, sexual abuse and punching a man at a pub.

The three separate anonymous allegations, all made in the space of eight weeks, destroyed the career of the Conservative former police and crime commissioner (PCC) for Cleveland and led to an attempt to take his own life. He never knew how the claims started — he often did not even know he was being investigated. He was cleared of every one.”

Just to be clear, Turner was not ‘cleared’ of anything. Two investigations by Cleveland Police were dropped on account of lack of evidence. As for the ‘false accusation of systematic theft’ he admits that he received a police caution at the time of the alleged offence, making the accusation not entirely ‘false’. 

Nonetheless, disturbed by the allegations made against him in 2021, Turner states that he became increasingly isolated. This, we can corroborate. Our 2021 report, The Agonies of Steve Turner, Cleveland Police and Crime Commissioner, compared his fate to that of Owen Paterson. While Paterson was supported by 250 MPs in Parliament following complaints about his conduct, there was silence from those that Turner might have expected to leap to his defence – Tees Valley mayor, Ben Houchen, ex-MSEC MP, Simon Clarke and ex-Redcar MP, Jacob Young among them.

This culminated, we are told, with an attempt to take his own life in February 2023. This coincided with a long diatribe against Andy McDonald, after the latter posted a statement on social media about mental health awareness:

One thing we can’t help but notice is that, if he was suffering from a mental health crisis at this time, it appears he bounced back rapidly. By the Spring of 2023, while still Cleveland PCC, he was campaigning for a seat on Redcar Council. It was at this point that his campaign tactics attracted the attention of Sky News reporter, Sam Coates.

The Sky News Report

During that election campaign, Turner made two complaints about his Labour opponents, the first regarding the colour of their election literature. This was initially made to Redcar Council, who referred it automatically to the police, the second a complaint of harassment that he made directly to police himself. As a result, fraud officers were dispatched to interview three Labour activists over the content of their election literature. Coates reports one of those interviewed:

“… the plain clothes policeman said they were investigating because the election leaflet had “upset Steve”. They added that the police officers they were talking to “seemed a bit embarrassed to be dealing with it …” …

“At the end of both investigations, police concluded there was no offence committed.”

So far, so unfortunate. But then it gets really embarrassing for Turner. The Sky News report, under the subheading ‘abuse of power’, continues,

“Nazir Afzal, former prosecutor and former chief executive of the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners, said Mr Turner appeared to have received special treatment by police.

"The perception is that he abused his power in this case," he said.

"Nobody else would have got the level of attention that the police gave him and this allegation... and that clearly demonstrates that he had the power to make it happen. Whereas you and I would not have been able to do that."

Cleveland Police will also face questions about the scale of the effort put into the investigations, at a time when resources are stretched and they are one of the worst performing forces in the country.”

The Sky News report goes on to say that, following this incident, Turner posted on social media that the police had confirmed that the Labour election leaflet contained ‘lies’.

Judging a person running for elected office by the public comments they make, is important. So also is the company they keep. Here, again, Turner’s record is dubious, something that Wheeler might have gained some insight into had she consulted our 2021 report.

The Company he keeps

Elections for Cleveland PCC are set to coincide with those for Tees Valley mayor. So, in 2021, there was a Conservative double ticket of Steve Turner and Ben Houchen. Houchen, at that time, had widespread popular support and went on to pull in 75% of the vote in that election. having the benefit of Houchen’s support, Turner was assured of victory and could easily have stood by and allowed it to happen. But he didn’t. He conducted a campaign of his own. Which is what led him to the owner of Stockton’s George Pub and Grill, Craig Harker.

Tees Valley mayor, Ben Houchen (left) pm on the campaign trail with Steve Turner, 2021

Steve Turner (left) with Craig Harker, 2021

Turner recorded a video during his election campaign in which he interviewed by Harker, who remains a controversial figure, not least on account the challenge he issued in an advertising campaign for his pub – “would you punch your ex for a free steak?”. 

Despite this, Turner garnered 74,000 votes in that election.

Double Standard

In the three years that have elapsed since the anonymous allegation ruined his life the £73,000 a year was receiving as Cleveland PCC must have helped to soften the blow.  That came to an end in the election of May 2024 when his substantial majority was decisively overturned. Now he has turned campaigner, as he says:

“I am not just the victim of false allegations; I’m the victim of a system that allowed fabricated stories to be weaponised against me. The damage done can never fully be undone but we refuse to be silenced and will continue to fight for justice, not just for myself but to ensure that no one else endures the same suffering.”



A fine sentiment, but one that he should possibly have embraced earlier. And one that, judging by his most recent comments on Facebook, is not being extended to leader of Redcar and Cleveland Council, Alec Brown:

Turner is entirely within his rights to apply to the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner and the Labour Party to ask for McDonald’s conduct to be investigated. Every elected person is accountable to the public. The issue with Turner is that the standard of conduct that he demands of McDonald is not a standard that he applies to himself. He is a Trumpworld politician, where the abuse of the power vested in him is a kind of divine right, and all criticism is abuse and betrayal.

It is almost inconceivable that a senior journalist at a national newspaper would accept the ranting of a Steve Turner at face value. We question whether this was really just naïveté on Caroline Wheeler’s part or whether, in fact, the Murdoch press is setting up a rehabilitation service for the casualties of Britain’s rout of the right. Let’s face it, it was only a week earlier that the Times produced a puff piece on Nadine Dorries (here, for the brave). Is there going to be a mini-series, we wonder?

Caroline Wheeler has been contacted for comment.

Synopsis of the Sunday Times article

“A former Tory police commissioner says a ‘witch-hunt’ orchestrated by a local politician ruined his reputation and career”

Turner alleges that Andy McDonald made three separate complaints about him to Cleveland Police in 2021 – that he had been sacked from a previous job for dishonesty, but did not disclose it when standing for election as PCC, that an allegation of sexual assault had been made against him, and that he had punched a pensioner in a pub.

McDonald demanded his resignation in parliament on the strength of these allegations without stating that he was behind the complaints to the police in the first place.

Turner denies the second and third allegations. He admits that he received a police caution twenty years earlier with regard to the theft of ‘a few jars of coffee’ bit didn’t disclose this when applying to stand for PCC as this wasn’t required.

The publication of these ‘false’ allegations against him led to become increasingly isolated and prompted a mental health crisis.

He has reported McDonald’s conduct to the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner and to the Labour Party, in the hope that proper investigation into McDonald’s conduct will prevent others from being treated in a similar way in the future.