Conservatives caught lying in election leaflets leads to demands for Tory chairman to step down

There are demands that the chairman of the Saffron Walden Conservative Constituency Association step down after ‘deliberate untruths’ are exposed in their district council election campaign material.

R4U’s Cllr John Lodge, an Uttlesford District Councillor for Saffron Walden, said “At a public council meeting last week the Conservatives were challenged about the lies in their election materials that are intentionally designed to mislead voters. While they admitted to the untruths, they point-blank denied any responsibility for the content of their own leaflets, even though they continue to share pictures of their councillors delivering them. If they didn’t write their own campaign material, who did, and why are they trying to shirk responsibility for what they say?”

“They’ve been consistently deceiving as part of an attempt to defame councillors from other parties, primarily R4U, to try to win back control of UDC. They have claimed that the developers running amok over our towns and villages are R4U’s fault, and not because of their 2 failed Local Plans and their pro-developer government legally requiring housing numbers and allowing major developers to bypass UDC refusal for planning approval. They’ve said that R4U at UDC is responsible for the potholes, blocked drains, and bus service failures when those are the responsibilities of their own Conservative-led ECC. They’ve even lied about staff at UDC.”

In the their misleading leaflets, the Conservatives have accused R4U of being responsible for potholes and poorly maintained roads and pavements, blocked drains, bus failures and even litter, when these are the responsibility of Tory-led Essex County Council

“The Conservatives refuse to accept any responsibility for the combined £11 million in Local Plan failures and funding gap that they left at UDC or that their party is responsible for the impact to councils and residents all over the country from the disastrous Truss/Kwarteng budget debacle. In spite of that, Uttlesford finances are back on track, thanks to R4U, and the result is right there for everyone to see. Our district council tax precept under R4U is 8% less than the rate-of-inflation and lower than both Conservative-led Braintree by 12% and East Herts by 9%. The new Local Plan is solidly underway and UDC has been refusing unsustainable developments at a higher rate than before.”

Cllr Lodge concluded “At R4U we abhor liars, believe in positive politics, and seek to improve the quality of public discourse at UDC. The chairman of the Saffron Walden Conservative Constituency Association is ultimately responsible for the flow of lies. He has already been exposed multiple times for ghost writing attack letters in the local papers. He and the local Conservatives have shown they can’t be trusted and we believe he needs to stand down as chair of their party.”

The lies in the Tory leaflets were covered in local news, and when asked to defend themselves, tellingly the Conservatives refused.

About Residents for Uttlesford