Leeds North West Labour Candidate in Charity False Endorsement Shame
Labour's candidate in Leeds North West, Alex Sobel, has been exposed as having included a FALSE endorsement from the Director of a local charity on a leaflet delivered in Leeds North West, which as well as causing uproar amongst local residents and volunteers and supporters of the charity, also breaches charity rules and could be a breach of electoral law.
This is the SECOND false statement that has been on a Leeds North West Labour leaflet - and the second time that Mr Sobel has been forced to make a humiliating public apology, having been threatened with legal action, so this latest revelation has left the Labour campaign in Leeds North West in disarray and has local people asking if Mr Sobel is fit to be a candidate, never mind an MP.
The Labour candidate has also been reported to the Charity Commission, due to the breach of charity rules and may also face criminal proceedings for breach of electoral law. To make the matter even more serious, the false endorsement was on a freepost election address - one of the leaflets that candidates are permitted to send to households at the taxpayers expense, so a complaint has also been made to the Director of the Royal Mail, Rachel Winham, asking her to investigate if freepost rules have been breached.
Charity Commission rules do not allow registered charities to endorse political parties or specific candidates, but in their election address the Leeds NW Labour Party claimed that the Charity Director of Kidz in Kampz is supporting Mr Sobel and backing him to be elected as MP for Leeds North West, in place of Greg Mulholland - who has been the charity's patron for 10 years. The charity's director has written to the Leeds North West Labour Party clearly stating that she did not at any time say she supported Mr Sobel or the Labour Party and does not support or endorse him - and that he and they must issue a full retraction and apology.
The Labour retraction and apology in Leeds North West, now published, is as follows:
In a recent Labour Party election communication, under the heading "Why we are backing Alex Sobel," we included a statement purporting to come from Madge Davey of Kidz in Kampz. Madge did not say this. We wish to make clear that the statement was in error and that Madge Davey had nothing to do with either the wording or the inclusion of the paragraph. Kidz in Kampz is a charity and does not support any political party. We apologise for the confusion caused, which is entirely our fault.
The printed apology by Leeds North West Labour is attached and is online on Alex Sobel's websitehttp://www.alexsobel.org/leeds_north_west_constituency_labour_party_correction.
The false endorsement follows an attempt by Alex Sobel and the Labour Party to claim that he had "got the peppercorn rent" for Kidz in Kampz - when Leeds City Council documents approving and granting the low rent make no reference to him making any intervention at all whereas they do list letters of support from Greg Mulholland as the local MP and Cllr Sue Bentley (Weetwood Ward). So this was already the subject of a complaint to Leeds City Council before the false endorsement was published.
In his ten years as Patron of the charity, Greg has done two big charity challenges for the charity raising over £3,800 for Kidz in Kampz and has raised the work of Kidz in Kampz in Parliament, done a shift in the Holt Park shop and has assisted the charity with issues relating to the provision of aid to the camps on the Burma/Thailand border.
Local residents are saying that they suspect that Alex Sobel has deliberately sought to use Kidz in Kampz and to try to show them endorsing him, due to Greg being a patron, which would make this even more cynical.
Alex Sobel has also been criticised for misleading residents in Holt Park over the reasons local doctors initially proposed to close the Holt Park GPs surgery and for claiming Greg Mulholland voted for the bedroom tax, when Greg very clearly voted for it not being included in the Welfare Reform Bill and has expressed opposition to it all along. Local residents are saying that the election in Leeds North West is coming down to a question of trust - and many are increasingly saying they don't trust Alex Sobel.
Greg Mulholland, the Liberal Democrat candidate in Leeds North West said:
"The inclusion of a false charity endorsement on a leaflet by Alex Sobel and the Leeds North West Labour Party is shameful. This disgraceful behaviour could have put fantastic local charity Kidz in Kampz at risk due to the breach of charity rules, which is just appalling.
"You would have thought that, having already been forced once to apologise and pay £2000 costs for putting out a false statement about me, Alex Sobel would then be careful about what he puts on election leaflets. Yet he stoops even lower and publishes a false endorsement from the charity Director of the charity I am Patron of.
"I am deeply proud to have been Patron of this wonderful local charity, that changes lives both on the Burma/Thailand border and here in Holt Park in Leeds. I would never dream of abusing them or any other charity by claiming an endorsement when charities are not allowed to do this, let along publish a false one.
"I have spoken at length to Madge Davey who is deeply upset by this and livid that Alex Sobel has done this. She is clear that she and the charity have been manipulated for party political reasons which is upsetting for them and all who support the charity.
"How can anyone trust a candidate who has now had to apologise twice for making false statements in two separate leaflets? Mr Sobel is not fit to be a candidate, never mind to be an MP and I suspect the Labour Party will think twice about selecting him as a candidate in the future".