The Wikipedia official who accused Grant Shapps of doctoring his own online biography was exposed yesterday as a former Liberal Democrat member. The Tory party chairman had been accused this week of using an anonymous user ID to delete embarrassing facts about his past and add unflattering details about his political rivals. But yesterday it emerged that the senior Wikipedia administrator who investigated the allegations - following a tip-off from the left-wing Guardian - was a former Lib-Dem member. Richard Symonds, 29, who goes by the online name 'Chase me ladies, I'm the Cavalry', is one of the UK's top administrators for the website. He once described himself as 'Liberal Democrat to the last'. Scroll down for video . Volunteer: Richard Symonds, who joined the Wikipedia project in 2004, says he was not being political . Mr Symonds decided to block a user called 'Contribsx' on Tuesday after concluding the account was probably operated either by Mr Shapps or under his 'clear direction'. Mr Shapps angrily denied the claims, insisting the story was 'untrue from start to finish'. Mr Symonds' decision was also criticised by other Wikipedia activists, who warned that the site should not be used to 'play politics' and referred the case to an internal arbitration committee. One user wrote: 'I don't know if 'Chase me ladies, I'm the Cavalry' did anything wrong but it's just rather obscure, and doing this during the peak campaign time for the UK 2015 elections as some sort of assignment from a journalist seems odd.' Mr Symonds, from Bow, East London, described himself on Twitter as 'Liberal Democrat (to the last)' before deleting his profile yesterday. He joined other party members who signed a letter to The Guardian in January last year calling for Lord Rennard to have the Lib-Dem whip withdrawn over his refusal to apologise for making unwanted advances to female activists. The internet expert, who has served in the Royal Naval Reserve, has been a Wikipedia volunteer since 2004 and became an administrator for the website in 2007. He is also a paid employee of Wikimedia UK, a charity which promotes the volunteer-written encyclopedia. Furious denials: Grant Shapps yesterday continued to deny he was behind the Wikipedia changes . Among his Facebook friends is Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales, who married Tony Blair's former diary secretary Kate Garvey in 2012. He was once featured in a BBC profile that called him 'one of the UK's top Wikipedians' and reported that he spent up to eight hours a day working on the site. Responding to the criticism yesterday, Mr Symonds insisted he was not a Lib-Dem activist and said he would never let his political views interfere with his Wikipedia work. He added: 'I have never considered myself 'active' in any party, although I have been a lapsed member of the Lib Dems on and off, for probably a year in total since 2010.' Mr Symonds toned down his conclusions about Mr Shapps' possible connections to 'Contribsx', revisions to one of his Wikipedia pages show. At first he claimed the Tory chairman ran the account either directly or indirectly, but later he changed this to suggest simply that the account was run by a user called 'Hackneymarsh' who was linked to Mr Shapps' office by The Guardian in 2012. Mr Symonds admitted that Wikipedia's top officials had 'chastised' him for his handling of the case, although he refused to back down yesterday. He said: 'While a link has clearly been drawn between Hackneymarsh and Contribsx, it is impossible to know who was sitting behind the keyboard of Contribsx. 'But given the nature of edits, I suspect that it was Mr Shapps or someone close to him.' The Liberal Democrats used the claims to poke fun at the Tory chairman when the story broke on Tuesday night, and senior figures in the party continued mocking him yesterday. Lib-Dem leader Nick Clegg said he believed the denials but then joked that the person behind the account could have been 'Michael Green', the pseudonym used by Mr Shapps to promote get-rich-quick schemes before he became an MP. A Lib-Dem spokesman said Mr Symonds had 'no connection to Lib Dem HQ'. 'The first time we saw this story was in the Guardian, and the first time we know about him was when we were asked about him this afternoon,' he added. Minister Justine Greening, left, and Tory election supremo Lynton Crosby, right, were among those mentioned in the Wikipedia edits . Mr Shapps yesterday continued to furiously deny he was behind the Wikipedia changes, and Tory cabinet ministers rallied behind him. He said: 'It's categorically untrue. It's absolutely nothing to do with me. It's just ridiculous. It looks like an extreme dirty tricks campaign designed to do anything but talk about policies.' David Cameron came to his defence, insisting the Welwyn Hatfield MP was doing a 'great job'. Wikimedia UK spokesman Stevie Benton said to the best of his knowledge Mr Symonds did not brief the Liberal Democrats about his actions. 'I would be incredibly surprised if he had done and would say it's out of character,' he told the Daily Telegraph. 'I've worked with Richard for three and a half years and his politics have never entered into anything in that time.' The Guardian rejected criticism that its story did not made it plain that it had prompted the Wikipedia inquiry into alleged links between 'Contribsx' and Mr Shapps. A spokeswoman for the paper said: 'The article clearly states that this was a Guardian investigation which brought to light some potential breaches of Wikipedia's own rules, which were then communicated to the site's administrators.' Unite leader Len McCluskey has become embroiled in a claim against his trade union for bullying and sexual harassment. As part of a constructive dismissal claim under investigation by an employment tribunal, former union official Sally Nailard has accused the Unite general secretary of calling her a ‘scab’. The 50-year-old former regional officer based at Heathrow is seeking undisclosed compensation. The case lifts the lid on alleged ‘discrimination, misogyny and bullying’ at the hard-Left union. The chairman of the employment tribunal in Watford, Isabel Manley, described the case as a ‘sad and sorry tale’. More than half of Labour candidates in its 106 target seats are linked to Unite. Mr McCluskey is one of several union officials cited in Miss Nailard’s claim. She resigned from her £47,000 position last August, following an alleged 18-month campaign of bullying and harassment. Her evidence submitted to the tribunal, seen by the Independent, relates to a copy of an interview she gave to Sky News in 1997 after a cabin crew strike which she didn’t take part in. Her evidence states: ‘If I was such a “scab” as Len McCluskey later said, I would have volunteered to operate as crew over the strike.’ The tribunal continues.
Official who accused Mr Shapps of doctoring his profile a former Lib Dem .
Richard Symonds, 29, is one of the UK's top administrators for Wikipedia .
However, he once described himself as a 'Liberal Democrat to the last'
He decided to block a user called 'Contribsx' on Tuesday after concluding it was probably operated by Mr Shapps or under his 'clear direction'