Hope Not Hate had an anti-UKIP
leafleting event on Saturday 3rd May in Bradford (areas including:
Clayton & Fairweather Green, Thornton & Allerton, Royds, Great Horton),
while this is not in itself a story the attendees is I think.
The event was organised on Facebook:
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Link to Facebook group:
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Enclosed screen
shots from the Facebook page which states the following included in the 19
attendees:
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Richard Dunbar (Labour
Candidate Thornton & Allerton)
Sinead Engel (sitting Labour
Councillor and Candidate Clayton & Fairweather Green)
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| Michelle Swallow (sitting Councillor Clayton & Fairweather Green) |
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| Alex Ross Shaw (sitting Councillor Windhill & Wrose), down as a ‘maybe’ attendee |
We know there were other Labour Councilors involved in the leafleting campaign but as we have no hard (photo) evidence I would not like to accuse them.
Here are some photo's of Labour Councillors and candidates sporting Hope Not Hate leaflets, kindly retweeted by Labour candidate Richard Dunbar:
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| (From left to right) Labour Candidate Richard Dunbar, Labour Deputy Leader Imran Hussain & Labour Councilor Sinead Engel. |
And another picture from Richard Dunbar's Twitter where he boasts of helping deliver 1000 leaflets in Buttershaw.
Our (undercover) member was told at the Hope Not Hate meeting
to tell voters that “UKIP was racist, homophobic and sexist” and where possible
take any UKIP leaflets out of letterboxes, which is illegal.
Who are Hope Not Hate?
Hope Not Hate is a far left
organisation with very close links to the Labour Party. Hope Not Hate since
2010 has received £150,000 in funding from the Department of Communities and
Local Government, ostensibly to campaign against “racism in deprived areas”. In
2012 it received no less than £63,000 of taxpayers’ money. I wonder if people
would agree with their taxpayer money being spent on producing this kind of
material and being used to campaign against a democratic political party?
Labour campaign tactics
Our UKIP Wyke candidate (Lois
Wood) was at her parents’ house (in the Great Horton Ward) on 3rd
May and was visited by Hope Not Hate, below is a transcript of what was said:
I was in the front garden with my
father next to me.
She passed my dad a leaflet, he
said "ah ukip" she said "we are against ukip" . I asked
"why are you against ukip" she said "well they have some funny
ideas about women"
"Really, I'm standing for
ukip in Wyke, so what are these idea's"
HNH: " they think all women
should wear skirts and Godfrey Bloom has made comments" (Godfrey Bloom is
no longer a member of UKIP)
"I think a sense of humour
is needed in these situations when comments are made tongue in
cheek"
HNH: "I think with an
attitude like that you shouldn't be standing as a public figure"
"Oh, ok!" I smiled, she
stood in the driveway, as if waiting for me to say more and then crossed over
the road and made her way down the opposite side of the road.
Interestingly about an hour late
the Labour candidate Joanne Dodds, knocked at the door and spoke to my mother
(I was not there).
The strategy was that a “HNH campaigner” (who was
actually a Labour activist) would knock on the door, pass a UKIP leaflet and
berate UKIP, then a little later the Labour candidate would knock and ask for a
vote for Labour.
UKIP Bradford Chairman Jason Smith
says:
“This is a very dishonest way to campaign, Labour using a far left group
to spread untruths about UKIP and then to follow up with another Labour
activist/candidate to canvas for their vote. Shouldn’t Labour candidates
and activists actually be campaigning for their own party rather than spending
time campaigning against an opposition party under the guise of another
organisation? It is clear Labour are unable to compete with us on the
real issues that affect working people, so they resort to dirty tactics,
ironically spreading hate and fear through an organisation names Hope Not
Hate.”
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