The Liberal Democrats have been accused of peddling misinformation after distributing fake newspapers with names similar to be independent publications, prompting one local newspaper group to threaten to stop all coverage of the party.

Jo Swinson’s party has produced publications in more than a dozen seats with titles such as Cheltenham Courier, North West Leeds News and York News to promote their candidates. Each “newspaper” has a similar look to a traditional news outlet but is accompanied by a small line of text saying it is a party publication.

Liberal Democrat campaign leaflets designed to look like local newspapers. Photograph: electionleaflets.org

Toby Granville, the editorial director of Newsquest, a local newspaper group which owns titles in many marginal seats, said it was outrageous that the Lib Dems had produced a publication called the Gazette to promote their candidate in an area close to his company’s Basingstoke Gazette title.

“If this isn’t pulled I’ll advise all Newsquest editors not to publish any campaign news for your party,” he told the Lib Dems.

Ian Murray, the executive director of the Society of Editors, called for guidelines to stop political parties “packaging their partial messages to ape independent newspapers”, while noting it was “ironic how … often politicians who complain about fake news then set out to at least blur the lines for readers”.

Is this ethical? Dressing up lib dem election campaign leaflets as a local newspaper? #Election2019 #LibDem pic.twitter.com/SOWNYz53ci — Joanne Wardle ☢️ (@joannewardle) November 16, 2019

The Yorkshire Post went further and called the Lib Dems’ Leeds publication a “piece of political propaganda masquerading as local news”.

In an editorial the newspaper said: “Here we have someone peddling imitation newspapers around the country in the hope that those reading them will be fooled into thinking the messages are checked and endorsed by the same local journalists who fought for their libraries; demanded their A&Es were saved; exposed that corrupt business person or found out the politician who was up to no good.

“When ordinary readers realise they’ve been hoodwinked by the medium that looks just like ours, the next time they come to read journalism produced by us, they will trust it that bit less. This all leads to the powerful becoming more powerful; more insulated to scrutiny; less accountable to the public. It has to stop.”

The tactic of masquerading political pamphlets as newspapers has been used by all major British political parties for many years, with local Labour and Conservative candidates also taking the same approach during this election. The Tories have produced a similar publication called Pudsey Future, while voters in Tooting, south London, have received a publication called Daily Press, which presents itself as a newspaper that is “free, paid for by local residents”, but does not state on its front page that it is a Labour campaign leaflet.

Only one step above the notorious Lib Dem election leaflet bar chart is the political party “newspaper”.



This from Labour is particularly maddening.



Utterly shameless. pic.twitter.com/U9apuTdbYN — Jack Maidment (@jrmaidment) November 14, 2019

Mark Pack, a veteran Lib Dem campaigner, said the aim was to get members of the public to pick up the newspapers when pushed through their door.

“The intention from all the parties that use them is to get people reading them, and as long as it’s made clear who the leaflet is from then that’s as legit as any other leaflet or other piece of literature, not all of which say at the top who they are from but make it clear somewhere else,” he said.

However, the Lib Dems’ systematic use of the approach during this campaign has attracted particular attention, potentially because of increased awareness around campaigning tactics and misinformation after recent election scandals. The party’s infamous use of dubiously labelled bar charts to emphasise that they were in with a chance of winning a constituency has also come under repeated scrutiny, despite having been a standard campaign tactic for decades. The Lib Dems have been approached for comment.

With just over a fortnight until polling day it is unlikely that any party will be tempted to bin printed campaign material. To confuse matters further, financially struggling local newspapers have often sold front-page adverts to political parties during elections.

A Liberal Democrat spokesperson said they had not distributed any of their material in the same area as the Basingstoke Gazette’s circulation area but were willing to discuss the issue with the newspaper’s editor.

“In the meantime, we remain committed to communicating with people, and tabloid newspapers has been one way of doing this employed by all political parties for decades.”