A Reform UK MP has insisted the party “has done nothing wrong” after it sent out a fake letter from a “concerned neighbour” during the ongoing Gorton and Denton by-election.
The party sent out a letter designed to look as if it was handwritten by local resident Patricia Clegg, an alleged former Labour voter who had switched to Reform, but who was in fact an ad for Reform, and quickly went viral on social media.
The letter did not identify the promoter of the material, as required by electoral law, and Greater Manchester Police has confirmed it is investigating the transgression.
Reform’s printer, Hardings Print Solutions Limited has apologised, despite widely reported claims of two similar transgressions in Welsh by-elections, and Helsby and Runcorn MP Sarah Pochin told BBC Politics North West yesterday that the party had behaved correctly and the incident was merely an error by the printers.
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Pochin said: “The letter was correct at the time it went to printers with the correct endorsement on it.
“Reform have done nothing wrong and the printers have taken full responsibility.”
She said the woman shown in the leaflet was a “real constituent” who had “fallen out of love with Labour” and no longer wanted to vote for the party despite being a Labour voter all her life.
Clegg does indeed appear to be a real voter, although her involvement in her letter appears minimal. She told The Guardian at the weekend: “I was asked to support Reform; would I be willing to do a letter and put my name to it? And I said, ‘Yeah’, and I left the rest to them.”
She added: “Reform did everything right. They signed it off and it went to the printers as it should have done.”
A Greater Manchester Police spokesman confirmed that a report was received and “we will be investigating this.”
A statement from the Electoral Commission said: “All printed material promoting a candidate at an election is required to include an imprint identifying the promoter and printer of the material, so voters know who is responsible for it.
“Failing to include an imprint in candidate election material is an offence. Enforcement of imprint requirements for candidate material is a matter for the police.”
A spokesman for Hardings Print Solutions, which Reform regularly uses for its printing needs, said: “We take our responsibilities in relation to election material very seriously and take full responsibility for this error occurring. Reform UK did not request or authorise the removal of the imprint. The omission arose from Hardings Printers’ production process.”
The by-election was triggered when former Labour MP Andrew Gwynne stood down on “medical grounds” and will be held on Thursday 26 February.
GB News presenter and academic turned activist Matt Goodwin has been chosen as the Reform candidate, while Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham was blocked from standing by the Labour Party in favour of local councillor Angeliki Stogia.
