Police have been called in to probe allegations of dirty tricks in the by-election following the killing of Jo Cox MP — after the English Democrat Party disseminated a clearly photoshopped image of a Labour Councillor holding a leaflet calling local voters “racists”.

The image, in which Leeds Labour councillor Alex Sobel is seen holding a leaflet discredited as a fake earlier this week, was shared by the right-wing-going-far-right English Democrats on their official Facebook page.

Top photoshop work by whoever produced it (look at the hands):

Here’s the real image:

The fake flyer, which claimed to be from the Stonger IN campaign, was derided as a cheap attempt to rile up Leave voters in the constituency.

It also claimed that by-election Labour candidate Tracy Brabin wanted to “make sure that anyone who calls for Home Rule for the “English Nation” is marginalised and no-platformed.”

In reality, the original image showed Sobel campaigning for Brabin — a close friend of Jo Cox.

The English Democrats have not yet responded to requests for comment.