LEGAL action is being taken by a Portsmouth councillor after a letter criticising his decision to stand in a neighbouring area was distributed by the Conservatives.
In a small claims court submission against Paulsgrove candidate Andy Macfarlane and his promoter councillor Robert New, George Madgwick described its content as ‘misleading’ and said he is also pursuing formal cease and desist action.
Cllr New said its claims were ‘factually correct’ and hit back at Cllr Madgwick, accusing him of being thin-skinned.
The letter, sent to the homes of postal voters in Paulsgrove on behalf of Mr Macfarlane, criticised Cllr Madgwick’s decision to stand this year in the neighbouring Southwick & Wickham ward in Winchester while remaining a Portsmouth representative and calls on him to resign.
READ MORE: Who you can vote for in the Winchester election 2022 - full list of candidates
It said: ‘Was the councillor not happy with the £40,000 allowance from Portsmouth City Council that they needed to go and seek more money from the public purse at Winchester City Council too?
‘In our opinion, that is what most would consider to be [a] professional politician: a greasy pole climber.’
Cllr Madgwick is not standing for re-election in Paulsgrove this year but his father, Brian Madgwick, is, representing the Portsmouth Independents party.
‘The Tories are trying to influence an election by lying about me to thousands of people,’ Cllr Madgwick said. ‘I do not have a £40,000 allowance and to send something like this out right before the postal voting deadline is bad form.’
His legal claim, seen by the Local Democracy Reporting Service, asks for Cllr New and Mr Maxfarlane to pay him £230 in compensation, largely to cover the cost of printing and distributing a rebuttal letter, he said.
‘I am okay with them telling people facts or opinions,’ his claim says. ‘What I will not accept is misleading lies…I have received less than £10,000.’
He said he ‘fully intended’ to follow through the legal process, regardless of the financial cost.
‘We need to keep politics as fair and as factual as possible,’ he added.
The allegations have been dismissed by Cllr New, who is also the chairman of the Portsmouth North Conservatives Association.
‘There seems to be a lot of very thin-skinned people in politics who are happy to dish it out but don’t like to get it in return,’ he said. ‘There’s nothing in that letter that’s factually incorrect or untrue.’
But the group’s election material has also been criticised by Lib Dems who said claims about the attendance record of cabinet member and Nelson ward candidate Jason Fazackarley who last year contracted Covid-19 and was caring for his dying father were ‘despicable slurs’.
Cllr Fazackarley said a letter sent out to voters in the ward ‘makes a series of either blatant untruths or extremely misleading accusations’.
‘The letter makes criticism of my attendance record, saying I am known for missing meetings and/or being late,’ he said. ‘It is this which I find the most upsetting. Quite frankly this is a despicable slur by those responsible to seek to make political claim against someone who was supporting a dying parent.’
He said it was ‘heartless and insensitive’.
Fellow Lib Dem, council leader Gerald Vernon-Jackson, said the letter ‘lacked basic civility’.
Cllr New said he was unaware of Cllr Fazackarley’s personal circumstances and said the criticisms were based on complaints from people living in the ward and had been made over a long period of time.
The candidates for election in the Nelson ward are:
Nick Doyle – Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition
Jason Fazackarley – Liberal Democrat
Spencer Roy Gardner – Conservative Party
Aimee-Louise Annette Gwyther – Labour Party
Duncan Stuart Robinson – Green Party
The candidates for election in the Paulsgrove ward are:
Nicky Dodd – Liberal Democrat
Raj Ghosh – Labour Party
Andy MacFarlane – Conservative Party
Brian John Madgwick – Portsmouth Independents, Putting Paulsgrove First
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