Newspaper editors have labelled the move ‘fake news’ (Picture: PA)

The Liberal Democrats have been exposed for handing out election leaflets that have been designed to look like local newspapers.

The party has been slammed by editors who have accused Lib Dem candidates of posting ‘fake news’ through letterboxes.

Toby Granville, editorial director of Newsquest – the second largest publisher of regional and local newspapers in the UK – said it was ‘outrageous’ for the party to be passing its own campaign material off as a local paper and demanded they be pulled from circulation.

He wrote on Twitter today: ‘This is outrageous [Lib Dems], 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.’

Basingstoke Gazette editor Katie French said the party had published a ‘free newspaper’ with a similar name to one of its titles.

The party was also called out for a Lib Dem leaflet that bore the title Mid Hampshire Gazette, produced in support of the party’s candidate for Winchester, Paula Ferguson.

The did the same in my constituency #streatham. It's incredibly misleading and quite frankly, desperate. pic.twitter.com/lbfjBV2sAJ — Nadia (@nadiarino) November 26, 2019

A fake newspaper with the title North West Leeds & Wharfdale was slammed by Yorkshire Post editor James Mitchinson who 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. #FakeNews’

Twitter user Nadia responded that her constituency in south London had also been sent a fake ‘newspaper’ titled the Streatham Brixton & Clapham Gazette in support of candidate Helen Thompson.

She said: ‘It’s incredibly misleading and quite frankly, desperate.’

In a statement, the News Media Association said political parties should not be ‘dressing up’ their material as independent journalism.

The Lib Dems defended the use of mock newspapers, saying: ‘We remain committed to communicating with people’ (Picture: Getty)

It said: ‘Political parties should not be seeking to copy the look and feel of independent local newspapers with their campaign material.

‘By scrutinising candidates on behalf of the public in communities across the UK, local news brands play a vital role in upholding democracy.

‘Dressing up party political material as independent journalism undermines this and damages trust in both news media and politicians.’

Jeremy Clifford, editor-in-chief of JPIMedia – which owns The Scotsman, the Yorkshire Post, the Falkirk Herald, and Belfast’s The News Lette – wrote on Twitter: ‘In an age of fake news, this is outrageous and the media should take a stand against this practice.’

The Liberal Democrats defended the use of mock newspapers in their campaign and told Metro.co.uk: ‘We remain committed to communicating with people, and tabloid newspapers has been one way of doing this employed by all political parties for decades.’

Lib Dem leader previously defended campaign literature that used data not approved by the British Polling Council (Picture: PA)

It’s not the first time the party has come under fire for its election campaign material.



Earlier this month the party were accused of misleading voters after a number of candidates published leaflets suggesting they are ahead of other parties in various constituencies.

The leaflets used data from Flavible – a company that is not a member of the British Polling Council.

Flavible has been criticised for using national polls and localising them to project the voting intention for certain constituencies.

It was used in Lib Dem leaflets in York Outer, Esher and Walton, the Islington North seat of Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, Putney, Enfield Southgate, Woking, Oxford East, and Westminster and City, where Chuka Umunna is running.

At the time, fact-checking site Full Fact criticised the use of Flavible and said: ‘It’s notoriously hard to reliably convert national polling results to local area.

‘Flavible have, to their credit, explained their methodology. But political parties shouldn’t mislead voters by suggesting these results are reliable at the constituency level.’

A Lib Dem spokesperson said the source of the data on those leaflets ‘was made clear’.

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