Lib Dem leader files police complaint over Labour’s ‘lying Leaflets’ as scandal intensifies

Lambeth Lib Dem leader Cllr Donna Harris has reported Labour’s election leaflets to the Metropolitan Police, citing Section 106(1) of the Representation of the People Act 1983 – which makes …

Apr 24, 2026 - 10:18

Lib Dem leader files police complaint over Labour’s ‘lying Leaflets’ as scandal intensifies

Lambeth Lib Dem leader Cllr Donna Harris has reported Labour’s election leaflets to the Metropolitan Police, citing Section 106(1) of the Representation of the People Act 1983 – which makes it an illegal practice to publish false statements about a candidate’s personal character or conduct during an election.

The formal complaint (attached end of article) follows Harris’s letter to the Electoral Commission earlier this week.

The Commission, which does not have the power to regulate the content of campaign material, advised Harris that the only legal route available – Section 106 of the RPA, covering false statements about a candidate’s personal character – is a matter for the police.

The complaint centres on Labour’s leaflet’s and manifesto claiming the Lib Dems cut Lambeth’s budget by 50%, removed over 200 police officers, imposed bedroom tax on over 5,000 households and plan to cut the Freedom Pass – claims Harris says are false.

Harris also identifies a second Labour leaflet (see end of article), signed by Clapham Common and Abbeville candidates Cllr Alison Inglis-Jones and Joe Briel, which goes further, stating the Lib Dems ‘have already tried to cut the Freedom Pass this year.’

Harris points out that Inglis-Jones was present at the Full Council debate on 21st January where Cllr Matthew Bryant called the claim “a big fat lie.”

‘Cllr Inglis-Jones was present during the Council debate,’ Harris writes. ‘She is very well-aware that her statement is a lie.’

Harris concludes:

‘No Liberal Democrat has cut Lambeth’s budget by 50% nor removed 200 police officers, no Liberal Democrat has tried to cut the Freedom Pass this year nor any other year.

Labour knows this, but still promotes false claims to the contrary.’ `- Cllr Donna Harris, Lambeth Lib Dem leader.

Brixton Buzz spoke with Lambeth Labour leader Cllr Claire Holland at a hustings event on Wednesday evening.

Holland, whose role in a “manufactured threat to the Freedom Pass” is central to the scandal, told Brixton Buzz to email her personally after being informed that we had received no response to repeated requests for clarity on the accuracy of the leaflets.

In a separate development, four Labour activists have been charged by police in connection with the alleged manipulation of a party database during a candidate selection process in neighbouring Croydon East.

Joel Bodmer, Shila Bodmer, Gabriel Leroy and former Croydon councillor Carole Bonner will appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on 19th May.

All four have been suspended from the Labour Party.