Some of Matt Goodwin's election leaflets failed to include mandatory statutory imprints
Reform UK’s Gorton and Denton by-election candidate Matt Goodwin will face a three-hour hearing in the High Court today to determine whether his campaign leaflets breached the rules.
Goodwin’s campaign team circulated a faux handwritten letter from a local pensioner, Patricia Clegg.
In it, Clegg said she has been a loyal Labour voter, but she will now vote for Reform, and is urging her “neighbours” to do the same.
However, the leaflet failed to include the party’s legally required party imprint.
Under the Representation of the People Act 1983, election material must carry an imprint to show who is responsible for the material.
Breaches of the law can result in fines up to £5,000, criminal prosecution, and three-year disqualification from office.
As reported by the Manchester Evening News, Goodwin’s barrister Adam Richardson argued the breach was “limited in scope, technical in nature, and had no material impact on the election”.
Richardson added: “Without relief, they face the risk of criminal prosecution, a fine, a three-year disqualification from elective office, and, if Mr Goodwin were elected, potential invalidation of the result.”
The court heard the imprint was included in the original leaflet design sent to Hardings Print Solutions. The printing company said that an “internal error” led to a font change that caused the imprint to be “trimmed off or omitted”.
The error was spotted on 6 February. Hardings then publicly admitted responsibility for the mistake.
Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward
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