Oh dear, it looks like no sooner is Tom Watson back in Government than he's in trouble again. Apparently he is involved in breaches of electoral law. As some will remember, I mentioned last week that Tom Watson was running the Ealing Southall by-election campaign for the Labour Party. As Iain's post reports, he has posted a false statement about the Conservative candidate on his blog, and, Joan Ryan, vice-chair of the Labour Party and former Home Office minister has repeated the false statement in an open letter to the media.
According to Watson and Ryan, the Conservative candidate in Ealing Southall, Tony Lit, is not registered to vote. This is based, presumably on them looking for the name "Tony Lit" on the Electoral Register. However, Tony is the common name that he is running under as per the rules the Labour Party brought in. Had Tom Watson looked a little harder he would have found that Tony is registered to vote under his real name, Surinderpal Singh Lit.
Grant Shapps MP, in his written response to Joan Ryan has of course made his letter an open one too, reminding Ryan (and effectively Watson) that they are breaking the law in publishing false statements about candidates. It perhaps go to show how concerned Labour actually are about their level of support in Ealing given the current ward and council make up in the Borough.
8 comments:
What false statement? It is a true statement that Tony Lit is not registered to vote. However, if it had been claimed that Surinderpal Singh Lit is not registered to vote then that would be a false statement.
The statement was the Conservative candidate was not registered to vote. That is false.
Joan Ryan: "How can Tony Lit credibly ask anyone in Ealing Southall to vote for him when he has not bothered to register to vote himself?" - FALSE
Joan Ryan: "When local residents in Ealing Southall realise that the Tony who wants their vote does not have a vote of his own" - FALSE
Tom Watson: "running a candidate who isn’t registered to vote strikes me as just peculiar." - FALSE
Now kindly fuck off.
Good spot. Glad ot see the days of new labour spin are over.....
Were they too stupid to search for "Lit"? What would have happened if he had been registered under Anthony?
Good on Mr Shapps to provide some evidence for his claim this time. Now if only he could do the same for his attack on the Liberals and their poster campaigns, he might look like he knows what he is doing. But it is a bit worrying for his credibility isn't it that so long has passed without him coughing up evidence?
JailHouse - Hoisted by your own pedantry?
I note with amusement that the politely rude comment I left on Watson's blog, which was posted yesterday, has now been deleted.
Oh well, my 15 mins I guess !
Alan Douglas
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