The Liberal Democrats are facing criticism over election campaign leaflets that look like local newspapers.

The party, led by Jo Swinson, has distributed material that mimics local papers as part of its election campaign leading to complaints from newspaper editors.

The Society of Editors has condemned the party for what it says "appears to be a concerted effort by the Liberal Democrats to mislead readers and voters".

The Liberal Democrats has defended its tactics, which it says have been used by "all political parties" for decades.

Ian Murray, executive director of the Society of Editors, suggested the move showed the party was taking a hypocritical stance on 'fake news'.

He said: “It is ironic how it is often politicians who complain about fake news but then set out to at least blur the lines for readers – and in this case voters – by packaging their partial messages to ape independent newspapers.

“If political parties were genuine in their desire, often expressed, to both remove the effects of fake news and disinformation as well as support existing regional and local media they would take steps to ensure their political freesheets look markedly different to real newspapers."

He called for new guidelines on campaign material that set out rules "against aping existing publications or indeed attempting to pass off as an independent newspaper".

Mr Murray added: “There should also be a requirement to clearly state which party is funding a publication in large, bold typeface rather than hiding such information away in an attempt to deceive.”

Toby Granville, editorial director of Newsquest, also hit out at the party claiming it had mimicked their title the Basingstoke Gazette by distributing a Lib Dem publication under the title Mid Hampshire Gazette in nearby areas.

He posted on Twitter: "This is outrageous, passing yourselves off as the Gazette newspaper in same area as our Basingstoke Gazette.

"If this isn’t pulled I’ll advise all Newsquest editors not to publish any campaign news for your party in build-up to #GE2019."

The Newsquest director took to Twitter again to post a copy of a letter addressed to the party's legal department.

The Liberal Democrats told the MEN the party would be happy to speak to Mr Granville if he contacted them directly.

The party was also called out by Yorkshire Post editor James Mitchinson who took a shot at the Liberal Democrats' publication The North West Leeds & Wharfdale News.

He said: "This isn’t ‘news’ as the masthead suggests. It’s political propaganda imitating local newspapers in order to borrow the trusting relationships that titles like ours in this region have worked so hard to build up with you."

Leader of the party Ms Swinson defended the party's publications but admitted admitted she had not "seen the specifics".

She told the PA news agency: "Doing campaign newspapers is not exactly a new campaign tactic, nor one that is only one that is done by the Liberal Democrats.

"We obviously do a mix of leaflets, letters or folded leaflets, or stuff on news print - I mean that's part of getting our message across.

"Generally we have newspapers going out as one of our campaign types of leaflets and, as I say, it's kind of as old as the hills."

Commenting on Mr Granville's complaint about the Mid Hampshire Gazette, a spokesperson for the Liberal Democrats said: "This is the Basingstoke editor complaining about something that was not distributed anywhere near his circulation area. As far as we know he has not contacted us directly and we will be happy to talk with him about this if he does."

The spokesperson added: "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.”