3 May 2023
CAUGHT ON CAMERA: Bournemouth East's Labour candidate for MP, Tom Hayes, steals a Bournemouth Green Party election flyer from a Moordown resident's letterbox, while replacing it with a Labour leaflet.
Councillor Chris Rigby, Chair of BCP Green Party, is quoted in the Bournemouth Daily Echo's report on the incident: “This is really disappointing to find out that a party would stoop to doing that and actually remove election literature.
“It’s democratic for people to receive anything which has been put out by parties and to do so, we believe, is to break electoral laws. We are exploring that at the moment.
“It’s frustrating to see when we are running a good campaign to have it jeopardised by a leaflet being removed not just by an activist, but Labour’s parliamentary candidate.
“If we had one of our activists or candidates doing this, we would look at suspending them.”
The Echo also reported: "A BCP council spokesman said: 'We have been made aware of this incident and are taking the required action.'”
Tom Hayes is a Labour councillor in Oxford and former deputy council leader.
