A Conservative candidate was caught out setting up a friendly voter on the doorstep after he forgot he was mic’d up during a phone call.
Lee Anderson, who is contesting the marginal Nottinghamshire seat of Ashfield, was caught in the act by Daily Mail journalist Michael Crick as he joined him on the campaign trail.
The Tory candidate was heard phoning a friend before he went to meet constituents on the doorstep.
I’m a candidate not a friend
He said:
“Make out that you know who I am, that I’m a candidate not a friend alright?”
Anderson was filmed saying the call was just about campaign material, indicating he had clearly forgot he was mic’d up.
Crick said: “In all my years filming elections I’ve long suspected that certain candidates have set up friendly voters to make them look that much more popular, but this is the first time we’ve caught a candidate blatantly.”
this is more Thick Of It than the actual Thick Of It pic.twitter.com/E1No9i44f1
— Jim Pickard (@PickardJE) November 25, 2019
Forced to pick potatoes
The revelations come after Anderson claimed “nuisance” council house tenants should be forced to live in tents and pick vegetables for 12 hours a day as punishment.
He posted a video on Facebook in which he said there were “nuisance tenants” making life a “misery” on the council estate featured in his 50-second clip.
The former Labour councillor said his solution would be to evict the allegedly troublesome tenants and have them work the fields from dawn until dusk.
Related: BBC caught up in another editing scandal
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