That’s the headline in today’s Mirror newspaper:
The Tories have launched a nasty dirty tricks campaign in a knife-edge constituency ahead of the next election. Conservative activists are ringing voters in marginal Wells and pretending to be calling on behalf of the respected local Lib-Dem MP Tessa Munt. They then ask the voters if they wanted to see David Cameron or Ed Miliband as Prime Minister at the next election. The calls were all made from a number in Southend, Essex. The Mirror has confirmed that it is one used by the Conservative Party .
Last night Munt reacted with outrage at the behaviour of the Tories. She said: “People here know who their MP is. The Tory candidate, and those in Conservative HQ who parachuted him into Somerset last year, obviously take people here for fools. It’s an insult to local people’s intelligence and the Tory tricks have backfired”.
One voter who received a call told the Mirror: “This is terrible. I received a phone call out of the blue and the person introduced himself as calling on behalf of the local MP. The person then asked if I wanted to see Ed Miliband or David Cameron as Prime Minister. I said well I want Nick Clegg and if you were calling for my local MP you would know that. The person became flustered and put the phone down. I find this conduct completely unacceptable.”
The calls have been going on for much of this year.
Tessa Munt has written to David Cameron asking him to ensure the Conservative party does not engage in such activity.
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8 Comments
I do hope that they are doing this everywhere (and of course discovered to be doing so); The local press would find this kind of thing difficult to ignore…. even if they are all owned by News International.
Nobody who entered into a pact with Satan ever profited in the long run.
Doesn’t this break some kind of law?
It may break a number of laws. Fraud, personation, making a false statement about a candidate.
and misuse of electricity to make a false telephone call!
@ Tsar Nicholas – we may have made a Pact with the Satanic forces of the Tory Party, but we did it in the National Interest and we have already paid a much higher price as a Party than the ‘squeaky clean’ Labour and Greens.
Dear Peter Chivall,
It is a great pity that Goethe and Dostoyesky are no longer with us. What material the Coalition would have provided them with for a profound work of literature.
Just shows how desperate and un principled the Tories are, now that they are up against Ukip and feel free to fight us hard. W e should not be surprised, given the dirty way they treated Nick Clegg during the AV campaign. Lets make sure people know how bad so many Tories can be.
The local papers there are mostly owned by the company that owns the Daily Mail. Say no more.