In their latest edition of “Focus on Spennymoor & Middlestone Moor” I noticed that the Liberal Democrats have chosen to post what could be considered to be deliberately misleading information about last summer’s by-election results.

I strongly believe voters deserve transparency and honesty from all parties and Independents, not manipulated narratives. In their graphic, the Liberal Democrats are attempting to push the narrative that voters only have a choice between them or the Labour Party; this is a blatent lie.

Out of the 22 seats on the Council, the breakdown of seats is as follows:

• 9 Independents
• 8 Labour Party
• 4 Liberal Democrats
• 1 Reform UK

Given that they are outnumbered more than 2 to 1 by Independents, it is comical for the Liberal Democrats to claim that the only choice voters have is between them and Labour.

Looking at their graphic, they have completely neglected the fact that I stood against them in this election, while also trying to push a false narrative that the Conservatives can’t win in Spennymoor. In fact, the Conservatives have previously held seats on the council, and the whole reason this by-election was called was because the Conservative councillor vacated their seat.

The implication that the Conservatives received no votes is also deliberate misinformation as they did not actually field a candidate in the election.

If the Liberal Democrats are prepared to try and mislead the electorate this early in the election campaign, you do have to wonder how far they will go the closer we get to May 1st.