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Thousands of Labour election leaflets were allegedly pulped after being printed with the wrong date.

The “flying start” leaflets should have been posted through letterboxes in key seats in London this weekend.

But the delivery was cancelled because the leaflets wrongly urged people to vote Labour on May 4 — the date of the local elections. There are no local elections in London this year — and the general election is on June 8.

“None have gone out,” said a source. “I think they were taken for pulping before being even loaded.”

A Labour spokesman denied that any such mistake had been made by the national campaign team. “The UK Labour Party has not pulped any leaflets nor have we delivered any leaflets with the wrong date,” he said.

He said he could not know about every local branch, where a printing operation could be carried out by an individual member.

Labour MP Wes Streeting has said he cannot “pretend” Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has what it takes to run the country. Asked if Mr Corbyn would make a good Prime Minister, the Ilford North MP said: “I’ve said before that I don’t think he would. I’m not going to pretend to have had a damascene conversion.”