The election race in North Tyneside Council has been turbulent, as local elections go. Last week, the Labour Party suspended its candidate in the Preston Grange ward over anti-Israel social media posts calling it a “terrorist nation” and comparing the country to Nazi Germany over the killings in Gaza.

Labour pulled support for Abdur Razaq on 25 April, but it was too late to change the name on the ballot paper. 

In response to the suspension, the local Conservative Party has circulated red leaflets that at first look appear to come from Labour, urging people not to vote for the party, and implying that it has disavowed candidates in a ward unrelated to Preston Grange.

Byline Times was made aware of a leaflet circulated in the Tynemouth ward following Razaq’s suspension, which was branded in the same shade of red as Labour leaflets and carried the headline “Important: Local Labour Candidate Suspended”. 

The 'misleading' leaflet from local Conservatives. Photo: John Giddens/Byline Times

The leaflet informs the reader that Razaq, who is not named and referred to only as “a local Labour Party candidate”, has been suspended, but because it is a recent decision, he will still be on the ballot as a Labour candidate.

The leaflet does not mention that it is from the Conservative Party, but the fine print does state that it has been promoted by Liam Bones, the council’s Conservative Group Leader on behalf of three councillors in the Tynemouth ward.

Tom Bailey, a Labour candidate for Tynemouth, told Byline Times: “The Tories have been putting these leaflets through doors in a deliberate attempt to confuse the electorate, to suggest that one of us might not be an officially endorsed candidate”.

He added: “This is part of a long pattern of behaviour by this local party. In the past they might have used a slightly darker shade of red. This is the furthest they’ve gone in outright copying Labour branding.”

John Giddons, the Tynemouth resident who brought the leaflet to the attention of Byline Times, said: “They've done this before actually over the last few years... I think this is dirty campaigning and typical of the Tories around here."

Accusing the party of being “desperate”, he added: “My local WhatsApp community group, which tends to avoid politics, has been busy with all posts about the leaflet condemning it as dirty work by the Conservative candidates.”

The leaflet circulated in Tynemouth implored voters not to vote for Labour, telling them that the unnamed councillor would sit as an independent if they won the ward, giving it the appearance of a disavowal from the Labour Party.

The leaflet also claimed “there are several other local candidates on the ballot paper. Please do not support Labour in this election”.

The tactic of a leaflet that is not obviously from the Conservatives, telling voters to vote for any candidate apart from Labour in an attempt to split votes, has also been used by Susan Hall in the London Mayoral Election campaign.

In another 'dirty campaigning’ row, local Conservative councillor Liam Bones – who appears to be named on the latest leaflet as ‘L Bones’ – was formally censured by North Tyneside Council last year after claiming on his website that former Deputy Mayor, Jim Allan, was the “laziest Labour councillor” and that he had “received over £150,000 in allowances – but didn’t think it was necessary to attend the meetings he was being paid to go to”. The reality was that Mr Allan had stepped back from duties due to severe illness.

North Tyneside Conservative Party was approached for comment.

This is part of our VoteWatch election investigation series. Got a story tip? Contact votewatch24@bylinetimes.com

A prominent Police and Crime Commissioner faces a raft of complaints following a string of controversial social media posts and a potential breach of his own office’s rules against politicising the force. 

A letter to CEO Chief Constable Andy Marsh of the College of Policing, by Andrew Martin of the local Luton Neighbourhood Watch and seen by Byline Times, details serious concerns regarding the conduct of PCC Festus Akinbusoye.  

Last week it emerged that Mr Akinbusoye had been found by the Bedfordshire Police and Crime Panel (PCP), which monitors his conduct, to have failed to uphold the Nolan Principles, which are core ethical standards for public officials.

Mr Martin also implies he breached the Police Code of Ethics, over social media posts that included referring to a Bible verse (Psalm 59), apparently castigating those questioning his behaviour as “enemies”, and implying that Luton Neighbourhood Watch had misused public funds.

The letter to the College of Policing comes after the Conservative PCC recently halted funding to Luton Neighbourhood Watch (LNW), which Martin alleges was politically motivated as the group had been critical of him. Mr Akinbusoye denies the claims. 

It also comes amid separate complaints over a likely breach of his own Bedfordshire police commissioner's office protocols, after his team published leaflets showing him in police uniform.

The outspoken crime commissioner is also a director of the College of Policing. Mr Martin argues this role is now untenable, despite the Conservative PCC being up for re-election this week. 

The letter strongly urges Mr Akinbusoye to resign or to be removed from his directorship at the College of Policing, arguing: “The PCP Complaint Sub-Committee especially mentioned the failure of Mr Akinbusoye to uphold the principles of Leadership and Openness, it follows that Mr Akinbusoye is not qualified to offer views on improving leadership, improving standards in British Policing, developing leadership and driving consistency across UK police forces.”

PCC in Police Outfit

Byline Times recently revealed the Conservative Crime Commissioner had appeared in leaflets wearing a police uniform, apparently against his own OPCC protocol. It’s understood that the image was taken during a stint as a special constable before becoming PCC. However, police imagery is not meant to be used in election material due to the risk of making it look like a political endorsement. 

The Office for the Police and Crime Commissioner has now responded to one of the complaints against this, saying that Mr Akinbusoye’s agent had accepted that the candidate should not have appeared in a police uniform in leaflets. 

The OPCC representative said they had received several complaints about the campaign material, noting: “The OPCC discussed this matter with the candidate's agent…who accepts that the local protocol sets out that images of Bedfordshire Police officers should not be used in election material. The image is of the Conservative candidate, Festus Akinbusoye, who served as a Special Constable in Bedfordshire Police from 14 August 2020 to 15 October 2020. 

“[The agent] accepts that the lack of caption explaining that the image is of Mr Akinbusoye when he was briefly a Special Constable was an oversight and could have been included on the election material.”

The agent reportedly pledged that the image subject to the complaints “would not be used in any new material that the campaign team did not already have printed”. 

Warning Shot

The OPCC has also sent a message to candidates following the complaints, which reads as a sanction: “The purpose of issuing a protocol to cover the election campaign period is to ensure, as far as possible, a fair and level playing field for all candidates and for there to be no opportunity for any criticism of any candidate… 

“Of particular note is the APCC guidance that states: ‘Police and Crime Commissioners will wish to be particularly careful around publicity photos which might risk involving the force in campaign and political material, whether seeking re-election themselves or supporting other PCC candidates.”

The commissioner’s office notes that “no objections were raised by any campaign team about the protocol” when they attended a briefing on the guidance. 

“The OPCC and the [election returning officer] have received complaints about the use of police imagery in some of the election material for one of the candidates…The OPCC is considering whether the use of police imagery is in line with the local protocol and awaits a response from the NPCC in relation to its guidance.” No electoral law has been broken, but the guidance protocol appears to have breached. 

Decision Will Come After Election

Professor Colin Talbott, professor of Governance at the University of Manchester and a Bedford resident, was one of those who complained to the OPCC. He told Byline Times: “They've kicked it into the long grass. The OPCC has passed it up to the National Police Chiefs' Council, and asked them to adjudicate on whether or not this is incorrect use of police immediately, and they've had no response.

“It is absolutely clear that it's a breach of the protocol. There's no question about it. He doesn't say: ‘well, here's an exemption if you happen to have been a police officer… He's put out another leaflet with this police imagery, and he's defended it on social media. He said there's nothing wrong with it.”

PCCs usually have some discretionary budget to fund non-police projects like Victim Support, Neighbourhood Watch schemes and so on. “He got into a dispute with his Luton Neighbourhood Watch, which is the largest one in the county, and he suspended their funding," Prof Talbott claimed.

Update 1st May 2024: A spokesperson for the Bedfordshire OPCC strongly refuted the claims, saying: "The complaint around the use of the imagery has been resolved...The use was found to have been in breach and advice given, this hasn’t been passed to NPCC to make a decision.

"Further, no funds have been suspended or withdrawn from Luton NHW. Following the overhaul of the way in which the OPCC provides funds to organisations in 2022, funding has continued to be allocated to the County’s Watch Schemes, which includes the three neighbourhood watch organisations that operate in the county, and also activity such as dog watch, horse watch and community speed watch.

"It is not true that any neighbourhood watch scheme has had their funding withdrawn. What is true, is that the process that we require the neighbourhood watch schemes to use to access the funding allocated to them has changed."

“I Totally Reject and Refute the Findings”

Festus Akinbusoye released a statement on social media last week, responding to the leaked findings of the police scrutiny sub-panel and suggesting it was politically motivated: “The complaints process is not yet completed, and it is quite shocking that the very well-known serial complainant has released the findings of the panel sub-committee before I have had the opportunity to respond to them, so I am limited as to what I can say for legal reasons. 

“I can however say, I totally reject and refute the findings of the Panel and will be responding fully as part of the formal process in due course. It will be very concerning to any objective observer looking at this process, that an independent Police and Crime Panel decided to hold a sub-committee complaint hearing a day before the election regulated/restricted period commenced, despite receiving the complaint from the serial complainant nearly six weeks before the date, and then further enabled the outcome to be released by the serial complainant.

“The timing of the Panel's intervention is therefore deeply regrettable and raises several questions, among which there's absolutely no right of appeal against its decision by me. The Panel has thus taken on a position which even our Courts do not take.” 

He added: “I remain fully focused on my positive campaign to be re-elected as Bedfordshire's Police and Crime Commissioner on Thursday 2nd May while continuing to fulfil all my duties on behalf of residents.”

A spokesperson for Bedfordshire’s Office for the Police and Crime Commissioner (OPCC) also noted that the findings of the sub-panel against Mr Akinbusoye were meant to remain confidential ahead of the process being finalised and a decision being taken on whether to publish it. 

The OPCC spokesperson added: “The complaint process has not yet concluded so it would be inappropriate to make any comment until it has been finalised.”

Spotted something strange ahead of the local elections? If you have a political story or tip-off, email josiah@bylinetimes.com or the VoteWatch contact above.

In an election replete with questionable campaign tactics – from data harvesting to campaign leaflets posing as local newspapers – a new tactic by Conservative London mayoral candidate Susan Hall has come to light.

A leaflet circulated to some Londoners suggests to voters that Labour's Sadiq Khan is inevitably going to win – in a move some election observers suspect is designed to split or de-motivate his voter base.

A letter written by Steve Tuckwell, Conservative MP for Uxbridge and South Ruislip aimed at postal voters, claims that “the Mayor thinks he is going to win this election easily. This means we have the chance to make a difference because if Sadiq wins by a smaller margin than he is expecting, he will be forced to sit up and listen”.

The campaign leaflet only mentions Susan Hall and the Conservative Party in the legally-required small print at the bottom of the leaflet. Tuckwell signs off the letter as simply 'MP for Uxbridge and South Ruislip’, without mentioning which party he represents.

Tom Brake, a former Liberal Democrat MP and the director of campaigning group Unlock Democracy, said: “Candidates should always be upfront in their letters and leaflets about who the literature they are circulating is actually from, with their name and party prominent.  As well as the content being factually correct, this is the least voters should expect from those seeking to represent them.”

The leaflet attacks Khan over building tower blocks “instead of building the family homes that Londoners need”, police station closures, and the ULEZ tax – opposition to which has been a key plank of Hall’s campaign for mayor.

Rather than encouraging postal voters to vote for the Conservative Party, the leaflet tells people to vote for “someone else”.

Only the URL mentions the name of the Conservative Party

Part two of the offending leaflet, first shared by Local Democracy Reporter Noah Vickers

Campaigners for democratic reform told Byline Times that this kind of campaign tactic was encouraged by the changes to the voting system for London mayor.

Alberto Smith, of electoral reform campaign group Make Votes Matter, said: "This sort of tactic is a direct consequence of the change to the voting system for mayoral elections
Steve Tuckwell's party introduced. Deliberately or not, it acknowledges the reality that, under First Past the Post, a majority of Londoners' votes will potentially count for nothing.

"If you don't want politicians to take votes for granted, don't introduce a system that denies voters real choice."

London mayoral elections previously used a supplementary vote system, which allowed voters to pick a second-preference candidate in case their first choice did not make it into the top two.

In 2022, the Government changed the voting system to the 'winner takes all’ First Past the Post system, after Khan beat Conservative candidate Shaun Bailey in 2021 comfortably with second-choice votes, but only narrowly on first choice votes.

Neal Lawson, director of Compass, a think tank which promotes electoral reform, told Byline Times: “This is a last-ditch desperate tactic from the Tories to push progressives apart and win power by the back door. Conservatives know they can win on a minority share of the vote not on their own merits, but by sowing division amongst their opponents. When we divide, they conquer.

“This is partly because of the switch from SV to FPTP for mayoral elections, which represents a real backwards step for our democracy and only serves to deny voters choice.”

For political marketing expert Bendict Pringle, the leaflet was "an interesting example of voter suppression by Susan Hall".

"Distributed in Lambeth, a Labour stronghold, it asks voters to help prevent Sadiq from winning by a big margin," he said. "[There's] no suggestion of voting Conservative or of the Conservative Party.

"The Susan Hall campaign know the chances of getting someone in Lambeth to vote Tory is low, so instead focuses on getting them to vote for anyone but Sadiq. If it’s successful it will help her close the gap."

Ashok Viswanathan, co-founder and former director of Operation Black Vote and CEO of
PeoplePower, said “the Electoral Commission too must watch this campaign like hawks for the development of these seemingly benign underhand tactics, for they are anything but benign".

He argued that Hall’s campaign was reminiscent of American electioneering and was “a sign of the slow creep into UK politics of the toxicity of American SuperPACS – those faceless wonders of US electioneering".

"These tactics only increase division, spread misinformation, and cause confusion – and are a threat to modern democracy," he added. "We must ensure balance and transparency are at the heart of democratic elections and all election campaign funding.”

During last year's local elections in Norwich, a Conservative Party leaflet was reportedly delivered to a "strongly Labour voting area", telling people "you don't need to take any ID in order to vote" – which was factually incorrect and risked disenfranchising voters.

Conservative London Assembly Member Susan Hall and Conservative MP Steve Tuckwell did not respond to a request for comment.

It is unclear where and how widely the leaflets were distributed.

Additional reporting by Josiah Mortimer

This is part of our VoteWatch election investigation series. Got a story tip? Contact votewatch24@bylinetimes.com

Barely a tenth of voters who lack photo ID are likely to have applied for the Government’s free form of identification ahead of next week’s local elections, according to analysis of official figures. 

Research by the Electoral Commission shows that people who are unemployed, people with disabilities, and people from lower socio-economic backgrounds are least likely to have an accepted form of ID, and should therefore apply for the free voter ID – a Voter Authority Certificate (VAC).

But analysis by campaign group Unlock Democracy shows that, despite a slight uptick in recent applications for the free ID, the number of applications is half of what it was over the same 100-day period ahead of the 2023 local elections. This is despite more voters being expected to head to the polls this year for many councils in England, as well as mayors and Police and Crime Commissioners.

Between mid-January last year and 25 April 2023, 89,654 applications were made for a VAC. In the same time period to the 24 April this year, just 41,792 people have applied.

The Government’s own research in 2021 found that 4% of eligible voters do not have an approved photographic ID – equivalent to more than 1.68 million people in England and Wales. While that figure may have declined in the time since, Unlock Democracy estimates that 1.5 million voters are still likely to lack necessary photo ID to vote.

The deadline to apply for a VAC passes at 5pm today, 24 April. 

Tom Brake, director of Unlock Democracy, said: “Today’s figures are an unhappy reminder that voter ID will once more rob huge numbers of eligible voters of their rights. The Government’s Voter Authority Certificate scheme has proven itself a total failure.

“We already know from last May what the impact of voter ID will be – many thousands prevented from voting, disproportionately young and disabled people and voters from minority backgrounds. Worse, with several high-profile mayoral contests taking place this year, the damage will only be greater. 

"Voter ID is an unnecessary, discriminatory and costly failure that’s damaging UK democracy. It should be abandoned before even greater damage is done at the general election.”

Ahead of today's 5pm deadline, Craig Westwood, director of communication, policy and research at the Electoral Commission, said: “The free ID helps ensure that everyone is able to take part in the May elections, even if they don’t currently have an accepted form of photo ID.

“The process of applying doesn’t take long and there is information and support available from the Electoral Commission and your local authority. And if you have friends or family who don’t have an accepted form of photo ID, please spread the word.” 

If people miss today’s deadline, they can still apply in time for the general election.

The VAC scheme was set up with the aim of ensuring that people without a qualifying ID would still be able to cast their vote at a polling station.

The Electoral Commission found that around 4% of all people who said they did not vote at last May’s local elections listed voter ID requirements as the reason – calculated to be around 740,000 people. 

More than 14,000 people were also recorded as being turned away from polling stations and failing to return due to voter ID in last year’s English local elections. But, as a recent DLUHC report concluded, the actual number of people who could not vote is likely to be much higher. 

Urban areas such as London, where high-profile mayoral contests boost turnout, are likely to be hard-hit by the voter ID policy. A report last September by the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Democracy and the Constitution described the voter ID system as “poisoned cure”.

Ministers have long insisted that the introduction of voter ID is to make elections safer. However, out of 58 million votes cast across three elections in 2019, there were only 33 allegations of the type of voter fraud that the voter ID scheme could have prevented, with only one resulting in a conviction, Unlock Democracy notes.

It is estimated that the policy will cost up to £120 million over a decade to implement, due to the need for extra staff, training, larger polling cards, advertising the policy, and the roll-out of the free ID scheme.  

Recent polling found that 16% of voting age respondents in Britain were not aware of voter ID requirements – equivalent to around five million people. Among 18 to 24 year-olds, the figure rises to 27%, more than one in four. 

Accepted forms of photo ID include a UK, European Economic Area (EEA) or Commonwealth passport; UK or EEA drivers’ licence; and some concessionary travel passes, such as an UK government-funded older person’s bus pass or an Oyster 60+ card. Voters can use expired ID if they are still recognisable from the photo.

There has been considerable criticism of the larger number of forms of ID accepted for older voters, but almost none designed for young people. 

Applications for the free ID can be submitted online or by completing a paper form and sending it to the local council’s electoral services team. Voters must provide a photo, their full name, date of birth, the address at which they are registered to vote, and their National Insurance number. Applicants must already be registered to vote before applying.

January to April 2023 figures (daily applications)

Equivalent figures for 2024

Note the far lower daily averages for applications (left)

Spotted something strange ahead of the local elections? If you have a political story or tip-off, email josiah@bylinetimes.com or the VoteWatch contact above.