Political

Police urged to investigate campaign against Labour and Lib Dem councillors in Milton Keynes

Milton Keynes attack leaflet 2012Milton Keynes Liberal Democrats are asking the police to investigate campaign leaflets put out during this year’s council elections which attacked both Lib Dem and Labour councillors for their views on providing space for Travellers.

A series of leaflets were put out during the election attacking named candidates from the two parties, accusing them of putting too much effort into housing Travellers compared to “the homeless, OAPs, and the disabled”. Although the leaflets contained a name and phone number, they did not contain the election imprint information required by law on such leaflets.

Moreover, credible estimates of the costs involved in producing and distributing the leaflets far exceed the legal limit for ‘third party’ campaigning during the council elections.

Third party campaigning of this sort against candidates can be carried out by anyone, but there is a limit in each ward of £50 plus 0.5p per entry on the electoral register for the electoral area. The local party has been told that the leaflets were delivered by a local commercial delivery firm, whose advertised rates far exceed the third party limit, even without factoring in printing costs or any allowance for the costs of more general newspaper adverts run on the same issue by the same group of people.

UPDATE: The outcome of the police investigation was as follows, taken from a letter from the police.Milton Keynes police investigation outcome

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