In June 2015, the committee removed advanced permissions from Richard Symonds, an activist for the British party the Liberal Democrats.[19] Symonds had improperly blocked a Wikipedia account, and associated its edits with former Chairman of the Conservative Party Grant Shapps,[20] and leaked this to The Guardian.[19] Shapps denied ownership of the account, calling the allegations "categorically false and defamatory".[21] Symonds said in an interview that he stands by his actions.[22]