Health minister Maria Caulfield has accused fans of a London women's football club of vandalising her constituency office in Newhaven, East Sussex, following their league victory on Sunday. The Conservative MP for Lewes posted on social media that she had contacted Sussex Police after 'supporters of a London women's football club playing in the local area yesterday felt it appropriate to damage my office'.
In a separate post, Caulfield said her office had been vandalised over the weekend with 'free Palestine' material. Sussex Police confirmed they had received a report of criminal damage at a premises in West Quay, Newhaven, alleged to have occurred around 5.15pm on Sunday 19 May. The only London women's football club playing in the area that afternoon was Dulwich Hamlet, who secured promotion from the fifth tier with a 5-1 win over Saltdean United at a stadium close to Caulfield's office, finishing an hour before the alleged incident.
Caulfield contacted Dulwich Hamlet to inform them she had referred the matter to police, though there is no suggestion the team itself was involved. She accused the fans of 'targeting a female MP' and said their faces, shirts and scarves had been captured on CCTV footage, which had been handed to the police. In her post, she also criticised those who had pushed conspiracy theories about '15-minute cities', stating: 'Those who pushed the conspiracy nonsense last week this is on all of you & you have put the safety of my staff at risk.'
Dulwich Hamlet are known in women's football for their unusually large and vocal support base, which has grown significantly in recent years. The club, a wing of the men's team, promotes itself as actively anti-racist and anti-homophobic, and regularly organises community activism. Police inquiries are ongoing, and anyone with information is asked to contact them.
