VIDEO taken on a Ring doorbell appears to show a Green Party volunteer picking up a Tory leaflet from a letterbox minutes after leaving.
The Tories posted the video on social media accusing a volunteer of approaching the house in Steyning Crescent, Storrington, just minutes after the Tory leaflet was dropped.
She was accused of replacing the leaflet with one printed by her own party before fleeing on Sunday.
It comes ahead of the Horsham District Council by-election, which is being held in Storrington and Washington on Thursday after Jim Sanson resigned in February.
The candidates are Joan Grech (Green), Daniel Hall (Conservative) and Pascal Roberts (Liberal Democrat).
The West Sussex Conservatives posted the clip over the weekend and it drew backlash from Twitter users.
shocking images of @LePartiVert follow our activists in Storrington and Washington and steal our by-election flyers from residents’ mailboxes and replace them with theirs @HorshamDC @sussex_police @JoshuaPowling @BBCPolitics pic.twitter.com/WE8RbAXa1M
— West Sussex Conservatives (@WestSusConser) April 3, 2022
A spokesperson said: ‘Shocking footage of the Green Party following our activists in Storrington and Washington and stealing our by-election leaflets from residents’ mailboxes and replacing them with theirs.’
The full video can be seen here.
Chair of the Arundel and South Downs Conservative Association, Cllr Joy Dennis, said: ‘We are extremely shocked by the outrageous behavior of the Green Party in Storrington and Washington, who followed our volunteer delivery people and then reached and removed our resident election materials. ‘ mailboxes and replaced them with their own.
“This kind of extremist behavior is unprecedented in the beautiful rural areas of Arundel and the South Downs and it is truly a shame to see these undemocratic actions depriving local residents of the opportunity to make up their own minds in this local election.
“This is a serious election offense which was addressed by the returning officer for Horsham Borough Council, who referred the behavior to Sussex Police who will deal with it in the future.
“In the meantime, we believe the Green Party candidate should step down from the election.”
In response, Ms Grech said the Green Party did not condone the actions of the volunteer, who apologised.
The Green candidate said: “First of all I would like to apologize to the residents, this is not behavior that I or the Green Party condone.
“We have spoken to the volunteer involved and she has unreservedly apologized and knows not to do this again.
“She was an overly enthusiastic volunteer who took her own initiative.
“Of course, this kind of behavior is not acceptable.
“I suspect this misguided volunteer was doing his best to protect me from the inaccurate personal insults contained in the latest Tory leaflet.
“That said, that’s no excuse and I apologize to the resident and to Daniel Hall the Conservative candidate.”
A Sussex Police spokesperson said: “This matter has been brought to our attention and we are investigating to determine what offenses may have occurred.”
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Source: www.theargus.co.uk
This notice was published: 2022-04-05 16:00:00
