Conservative MP faces claims he helped Ukip candidate target Labour voters | Politics | The Guardian

Claims that UKIP is just a wing of the Conservative Party intended to distract Labour voters away from their natural constituency are correct, it seems.

The UKIP candidate in this story had known the Conservative candidate for 30 years and was clearly on extremely good terms with him. The suggestion that they were sharing information in order to beat Labour is an offence against democracy.

If the allegations are true, is this an isolated case? If not, then the election result is thrown into doubt.

However: We have a Conservative Government. Even if half the seats in the country were won by illegitimate means, nothing would be done about it.

Hampshire constabulary are looking into claims that Royston Smith, the new Conservative MP for Southampton Itchen, handed the constituency’s Ukip candidate intelligence and a specially designed leaflet to help him target potential Labour/Ukip swing voters.

Former Ukip candidate Kim Rose claims that two months before polling day Smith handed him an envelope marked confidential containing about 55 pages with maps, local election results broken down by area and addresses for traditional Labour voters who had indicated to Tory canvassers they were likely to support Ukip.

Labour lost the seat to the Conservatives by 2,316 votes after holding it for 23 years. Rose says he used the detailed information to instruct his campaign and claims he can thank it for many of the 4,000 votes he took from Labour.

The former Ukip candidate also claims that the new Conservative MP, whom he has known for about 30 years, handed him a leaflet template attacking Labour’s record on immigration that he recommended Rose distribute in the areas of the constituency he highlighted as being home to potential Labour/Ukip swing voters.

Smith admits to giving Rose documents and advice for his campaign, but denies giving him canvassing data. He also denies giving the Ukip candidate the anti-Labour leaflet, though the Conservative party admits that the leaflet came from somebody working in the constituency’s Conservative campaign and said they were investigating.

Source: Conservative MP faces claims he helped Ukip candidate target Labour voters | Politics | The Guardian

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6 Comments

  1. Philip burdekin June 1, 2015 at 11:06 am - Reply

    Dirty dirty nasty party. They can’t acually stop thier lies.

  2. NMac June 1, 2015 at 11:50 am - Reply

    The Tories are experts at the unpleasant divide and rule tactic. Sadly many people, wthout fully realising it, are taken in and fall for their divisive tactics.

  3. Chris June 1, 2015 at 12:02 pm - Reply

    Don’t believe a word The Guardian tells you. They have sided with the Tories now.

    Labour did not lose the election to a UKIP that did win for Farage and lost 1 of the 2 MPs they already had.

    Labour lost because Labour voters DID NOT COME OUT TO VOTE for any party.

    One Labour voting area, that did bring back its sitting Labour MP, did so because 51 per cent of voters did not come out to vote for any party. The largest non-voter bloc in England.

    This has happened in Wales in Labour strongholds.

    This is, of course, dangerous, as Tory voters (and UKIP is a branch of the Tory party, that is old news) do come out to vote and keep registered to vote.

    The Labour leadership hopefuls are all saying things against those on benefit.

    Forgetting that is the working poor who are 90 per cent of housing benefit.

    Families with kids getting child tax credits.

    Folk in work getting working tax credits.

    The Tories keep trying to say the state pension is a benefit and put it within the welfare bill.

    Pension Credit is a benefit to top up the lowest state pension of all rich nations bar poor old Mexico.

    And not one Labour leadership hopeful is saying one thing about the con that is the flat rate pension.

    The lowest forecast seen so far is a man with 45 years in work getting only
    £8.39 per week next year as a new pensioner.

    When Labour use my petition and widely share it, putting it into the Labour leaning national newspapers to show up the Tories, then maybe they will get back the voters who just sit on their hands and vote for no party.

    https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/state-pension-at-60-now

  4. Nick June 1, 2015 at 2:55 pm - Reply

    it pretty obvious UKIP are part of the conservative machine and if you dig deep enough part of the BNP mantra.

    All the conservative party are truth be known is an acceptable voice had Nigel Farage adopted a similar tone leading up to the election he would have one his seat hands down

    politics at the end of day is all about trust and on a personal level how you come across get that right and your in get it wrong and your out

    what your individual views are is irrelevant the public are more concerned that they can identify with you and with that being the case will vote for you even if you don’t see eye to eye on everything

  5. amnesiaclinic June 1, 2015 at 7:44 pm - Reply

    Well, perhaps that slim majority will be whittled away…

  6. Maria Nelson June 2, 2015 at 2:45 am - Reply

    I said this for a long time on gut instinct, u kip were never totally serious , if they remove votes in many constituancies including 800 in my own area it can make a difference to the results. Too many tories went to ukip they were too pally for my liking

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