AIBU to think this is electoral fraud?

[CatPancake]

I’m outing myself here… but my local MP candidate has released new election graphics….

would you be shocked if I told you he’s not a member of the Labour Party!!!

Have a guess which Party he is campaigning on behalf of please 🙏🏻

True 😊

It's misleading and deceitful, for sure. And I do think he should be told to stop distributing them.

But if people can't read the party on the ballot paper, then we don't really have much hope.

He should have done what other Tories did during the local elections then and campaigned as himself with no blue rosettes or mention of Sunak. If he's such a great constituency MP, they would vote for him anyway. People in North Norfolk, a true Blue County voted for years for Norman Baker, even though he was Lib Dem, because he was an outstanding MP. It's gone blue since he retired.

Like Ben Houchen, re-elected as the mayor for Tees Valley. A lot of his stuff only said Conservative in very very tiny letters at the bottom where they have to give the address.

I saw on Twitter this morning that this has been reported to the police and the Electoral Commission.

I know some Tories at the local elections had been removing mentions of the Conservative party/logo and also using over colours, green for example, instead of Tory blue for their flyers to distance themselves from Central Office, but this is taking things to a new level!

Completely fraudulent as it looks like a Labour Party flyer and can only have been done on purpose to trick voters into thinking he is a Labour candidate.

They really are desperate...

Not everyone can necessarily fully understand the ballot paper. It may not be obvious to everyone. Some people have disabilities that might make it more difficult to understand what they need to do or what they're looking at. I have ADHD and i have to read the ballot paper three or four times before i mark the box to make sure I'm voting for the right person.

It's entirely feasible someone may walk in intending to vote for Labour, see Largan's name and vote for him on the basis of remembering the catchy slogan that has misled them to think he's labour.

But that's the tories for you. Resorting to cheating to win.

Certainly the Tory mayoral candidate in my area produced quite red campaign leaflets (didn’t actually use the word Labour in the way this chancer has though), barely said the word Conservative, and only included the legal wording in the smallest print. Labour by contrast went full Union Jack so ironically you could have taken them for Tory campaign literature.

Just proves that the Tories are now unelectable and they know it.

Yeah he's my mp too and Derbyshire police has opened an investigation

David Lammy was fined £5,000 for 'nuisance calls' when he ran for London Mayor;

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/david-lammy-fined-ps5-000-over-35-000-nuisance-calls-urging-people-to-vote-for-him-a6922576.html

Well yes, that too, but I think that goes without saying! Only the Tories...

"Investigating claims of" does not equal "is guilty of".

It's bloody stupid, it's deceptive, and it's highly misleading, but it is not electoral fraud.

I'll be so glad to see him go. He's an awful man who took credit for the successes of the labour MP before him, who really did fantastic work. If he doesn't like what you say or ask him on his FB page, you get blocked. I'm not talking about abusive posts, just general ones expressing dissatisfaction or calling him out.

It's not the first time he's been called out on his behaviour. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-derbyshire-66742672

Tbh it really does prove how little effort and research people put into voting

blatantly misleading

Imprints from all Parties appear in very small print on publications.

Again, not "only the Tories": each and every Party has people who pull stunts like this.

I’ve previously helped a political party when campaigning 20 years ago, and I was genuinely shook at people’s lack of understanding about voting, politics etc.

its hard to imagine - but there are a lot of people out there with very limited knowledge

https://www.varsity.co.uk/news/8317

But, a Party isn't limited to any one colour or style or logo. It is the imprint which is legally important and makes clear who has produced the literature.

I am being slightly flippant, but I do find people's ignorance a challenge to my fundamental belief in universal suffrage.

No idea about the precise definition in UK law, but elsewhere there have certainly been people convicted for election fraud based on disinformation campaigns.

Of course. It’s a dull legal necessity. When you‘ve chosen to produce campaign material that looks so much like your opponent’s that the imprint is the only way to discover what party you belong to though, it does matter rather more to the reader though.

You don't know what outing yourself is either. The average UK constituency size is around 60,000 people. I haven't quite narrowed it down to be able to identify you, not that I can be bothered.

It's an asa matter

Attempting to gain votes through deception? Sounds like electoral fraud to me.

Oh, our local Tory did a very very similar thing during the recent council elections; it only mentioned the Tory party in very small print, and it was the consistent "Labour fucked this up" about stuff that I knew was Conservative caused that made me look for it.