The Leicester South by-election has turned dirty. A leaflet purporting to be from the Liberal Democrats and featuring a picture of two men kissing has been distributed in an Asian area of the city. The materials, which campaign organisers have confirmed as fake, are clearly an attempt to inflame anti-gay sentiment in the largely Muslim Spinney Hills area.
The leaflet features a version of the party’s equality policies as channelled by the Daily Mail. If the lack of an imprint (text required by electoral law) or contact details doesn’t raise suspicions, the text erroneously describe former Treasury Secretary David Laws and Simon Hughes as front benchers:“We will force all schools to teach homosexuality as normal … Our front bench team Simon Hughes and David Laws are committed homosexuals, while Nick Clegg was recently voted by readers of Pink Times as the sexiest party leader.”
The operation to whip up anti-gay sentiment echoes a similar incident during the 2004 Leicester South by-election, which was won by now out-of-favour Liberal Democrat Parmjit Singh Gill. Liberal Democrat Party HQ responded by saying:
“Some of this leaflet is completely true and we are very proud of our record in championing gay rights. However, this a fake leaflet maliciously designed to incite hatred. It is disgusting attempt to provoke hate during the last days of a political campaign. It has no place in politics and it has no place in society.”
Now, I may not be a great fan of the Lib Dems, but this leaflet is a pretty tasteless example of how not to run politics. There can be no room in any election for attacks against any minority and the decent-thinking majority of voters should dismiss the contents of this leaflet as being the work of those opposed to true equality in this country.
