There’s a new election campaign poster up on my home turf of Portslade. This one is different from the rest as it’s one for the Liberal Democrats.

This set a bell ringing. Some of you may have read this post describing a canvassing visit my partner and I had last Sunday from New Labour candidate, Celia Barlow.

During her visit, Celia told us that Paul Elgood, the Liberal Democrat candidate, was not campaigning in Hove and Portslade but instead helping in the Lewes constituency.

The appearance of the poster seems to contradict this so I emailed the Liberal Democrat campaign team for confirmation. Paul Elgood emailed me himself unequivocally denying what Celia had said:

We are working hard in this constituency and fighting for every Lib Dem vote. Lewes is a held seat for the Lib Dems and they don’t need outside help, as we have to aim to increase the vote and win in other constituencies. I am working flat out here and aim to double the vote.

Celia’s comments are very dishonest.

Paul also left a comment to that effect on this blog here.

Celia’s assertion was also contradicted in this article about the Hove constituency on the politics.co.uk website last Monday, which said:

In 2001, the 3,800 people who voted Liberal Democrat were the difference between Labour on 19,000 and the Conservatives on 16,000. This time round, Elgood aims to double the Liberal Democrat vote; if he can do so, he will wipe out Labour’s majority, and the Lib Dem vote will determine the outcome of the election.

He says the Liberal Democrats are putting in “triple, quadruple” the resources they put into previous elections and will be fighting for every vote in a way they never have before. That will allow them to pick up on what he calls a “groundswell” of feeling among groups - pensioners, the intelligentsia, students, people opposed to the war in Iraq - who are dissatisfied with Labour but not willing to turn to the Conservatives.

“In Hove, they can afford to have a protest, a by-election style protest and I think that’ll come to us in big numbers,” he says.

So which is it? The New Labour candidate says the Liberal Democrats aren’t campaigning in Hove. The Liberal Democrat candidate says emphatically that they are.

I spoke to someone in the Electoral Services department at Brighton & Hove City council about it. I didn’t name any names, simply saying, “A candidate said this about another candidate who subsequently denied it.” Their response was interesting.

Nominations for candidates wishing to stand in the constituency do not close until April 19. Until that date nobody is officially standing at the election in Hove. You can campaign even if you are not yet officially standing. If something similar were to happen after April 19 Electoral Services would take the matter in hand but only to refer it to their senior contact at the party against who the accusation has been made. But where does this leave Celia’s assertion that Paul Elgood is not campaigning?

I emailed Celia twice this week, once on Wednesday and yesterday, where I put my cards on the table, explained who I was and what I intended to do:

I shall be looking to write about this matter on my site later today. I realise you must be extremely busy with your camapign but I want to give you the right of reply and would be grateful for a comment from you or your agent to add the proper balance.

I received a reply today in which she said:

Sorry about the delay in replying. As you say I am very busy. However, following your email I contacted Paul Elgood. I realised I was misinformed and I have apologised to him.

I’d be very interested to know who misinformed Celia and why. This erroneous impression has come from somewhere either through a misunderstanding or, possibly, something more malicious. I also wonder if campaigns can afford for their candidates to be misinformed in this way. Rival camps are looking to score big points - witness the furore over Ed Matts and his doctored photos.

Now, I realise that the anti-New Labour sentiment expressed on this weblog, and my association with the tactical-voting campaign Backing Blair might tarnish me in the eyes of some in this matter. A casual scroll through the site though will tell you that I enjoy giving the Tories stick with as much, if not more, relish than I do New Labour. When Blair goes, I’ll be a Labour voter again.

Despite my “affiliation”, another casual scroll will show you that my coverage of the election in Hove so far has been even-handed: here, here, here, here and here.

So that said, I’m not grinding an axe here. But this is a marginal constituency where the incumbent party has a shaky majority. Telling voters, without checking the veracity of what we now know to be just a rumour, that a rival party isn’t bothering to campaign is misleading, wrong and potentially damaging to that rival campaign.

Can we be expected to believe that Celia was unaware of the impact her words might have on both the views of floating voters and, by extension, both her and the Liberal Democrat’s election campaigns?

How many other people told the same might think: “If they can’t be bothered to campaign, why should I bother to vote for them?” And how is this impression to be corrected? Don’t New Labour have big enough issues on trust without this happening on the doorstep?

I’d be chasing this just as much if such a comment had come from another party’s candidate. I dropped my psuedonym on this blog to prove I stand by what I’ve written here - so there can be no accusations of me hiding anything and my dealings with the parties involved cannot be construed as anything else other than above board.

This isn’t about is trying to land a blow on an election candidate with who I don’t agree. This is about fair play and, without trying to sound grand, the democratic process.

Posted on April 15th, 2005 at 1:55 pm

See also • ELECTIONWATCH 2005: Hove • Are you local? • A Canvasser Calls		Permalink • Trackback • Subscribe By Email • Print This Post • • •
Filed under 2005 General Election, New Labour, UK politics