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 🙏🏻

Yes, Grumpy that's election rather than electoral fraud.

I hope Largan is barred from standing as a candidate. He's a dishonest cheat at best.

This is really interesting as he got into trouble before, an apologised but NOT for being misleading. He apologised because the name of the paper he released was the same as a previous local paper.

he is utterly shameless

If you can't read Labour, Conservatives, Liberal Democrat's, Green Party etc on the ballot paper you shouldn't be voting. It's not difficult to put a cross in the correct box on the day, the party logo is even on the ballot paper for everyone to clearly see.

a lot of people find it very difficult and there’s no IQ test to pass before people can vote.

surely we don’t want a race to the bottom campaign where people see what they can legally get away with and how many they can hoodwink?

In a local election my mother and her sister went to vote. When they were in the booths my Aunt called to mother, 'Alice, I've forgotten my reading glasses' Mother called back 'Our one is the third one down'!

The people running the station were curled up laughing though one did say 'That's not strictly speaking legal!'.

It's pretty pathetic that the only way a Tory candidate thinks he can get elected is by tricking people into thinking people he's a labour candidate.

It’s likely his only hope!

The former Labour MP and associates discussed here:

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2019/11/23/labour-activists-targeting-rivals-racist-abuse/
https://www.thejc.com/news/jlm-urges-labour-mp-ruth-george-to-call-out-councillor-who-shared-neo-nazi-material-ec90so4e 
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/feb/19/labour-mp-ruth-george-israel-funding-independent-group-luciana-berger
https://www.buxtonadvertiser.co.uk/news/politics/council/county-council-leader-calls-for-former-high-peak-mp-ruth-georges-suspension-from-labour-3030973

Good attempt at whataboutery @Clavinova, but it fails.

The previous Labour candidate/MP saying something appalling almost five years ago doesn't negate the fact that Largan is behaving in a very dishonest way.

It wasn't just the previous Labour MP. At least three Labour councillors, plus activists made or repeated antisemtic remarks, including one councillor who directed abuse at Largan himself, referring to him as 'Bobby Largerman', repeatedly posting pictures of Jelly Babies asking him if he 'ate children' and posting illustrations of the Wandering Jew (although Largan says he isn't Jewish).

Largan's office was vandalised in 2022 (following Partygate revelations) - despite him criticising Johnson. Activists have staged a number of protests/stunts outside his office on various topics, orgainised petitions against him - it seems to me as though it's Labour who have the unfair advantage here.

Is that you, Robert?

Labour have the unfair advantage because a number of the High Peak Labour Party are hooligans/idiots/antisemetic?

That’s unrelated to the candidates themselves trying to con the electorate.

He held a surgery in a pub and got in a fight with someone who was asking him a question. As in punched him in the face (Largan was the one punching the other man)

And in march 2023 He also threw a fundraiser 'for good causes' said he had the children's minister attending then went into detail about what she has stood for (children and disabilities) and that it would be fantastic event raising money for good causes tickets cost £25 each and comments were deleted on Facebook when people asked what charities he was raising money for and then he edited his posters to say he was raising money for 'Robert Largan's fighting fund for the next general election'

Sooner he's gone the better

I also had a leaflet through today in Horwich - it was mostly red so I assumed Labour. Nope - Conservatives. Sneaky 🐍

😱 it's just so underhanded!!

The law and/or rules are very weak in this area.

The Electoral Commission admits there is nothing in law to control the style and presentation of campaign material. The Commission’s remit when it comes to campaign material relates only to whether printed material has an imprint. The laws require campaigners to be clear about who is responsible for producing and promoting campaign material, although these do not require the inclusion of a specific label or text. An imprint only currently requires the name and address of the printer and promoter who authorised the material. Thus the imprint doesn't even have to say which party the candidate represents - the candidate could use his own name and address. The imprint just has to be true.

During the 2019 election, the Conservative, Labour and Liberal Democrat parties all used "fake newspapers" and the trade body for real newspapers (NMA) and the Society of Editors have complained to the Electoral Commission about all three parties.

IDK about electoral fraud, but it is definitely batshittery.

I can't really imagine that working.

This is very interesting as another Conservative leaflet I got today was in the style of a fake tabloid newspaper. Nothing could make me want to read it less than presenting it like that.

ilovevinyl
He held a surgery in a pub and got in a fight with someone who was asking him a question. As in punched him in the face (Largan was the one punching the other man)

Do you have a link? I could only find this;

April 2020
Conservative politician [Robert Largan] who went on to become MP for High Peak was left 'extremely scared' when he was punched in the face by a violent thief who snatched his iPhone X on a train, a court heard.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8244959/Violent-thief-threatened-MP-Im-going-murder-punched-face.html

Sure hang on. This was when his girlfriend had to stop him shouting at the man in the pub and after the video ended he got aggressive

@Clavinova and this is what he said happened in Tesco in Whaley bridge and then the person who actually was the 'security breach''s response

@Clavinova continued

I think the advertising standards people would be interested in that. It is deliberately misleading.

The Advertising Standards Authority has no control over political campaign advertising: https://www.asa.org.uk/type/non_broadcast/code_section/07.html; https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/who-regulates-political-advertising/. Political campaign advertising does not have to be legal, decent, honest and/or truthful.

Anybody who believes anything in a political advert is a moron. Nobody should be reading them.

The police will be investigating this campaign for misrepresentation, but the small print states that it was produced by the Conservative Party, so I don't think they're likely to be able to do anything.